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PRINXETON    .    NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  B'' 

Robert  P.  Brodsky 

BV  3797  .08  1896 
Ostrom,  Henry,  1862-1941. 
Out  of  the  Cain-life  into 
the  Christ-life 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 
INTO  THE  CHRIST-LIFE 


Works  by 

Rev.  Henry  Ostrom: 


^Out  of  the  Cain-Life.-' 

Bound  in  cloth,  342  pages.     Price  ;^i.oo. 

**These  are  exceedingly  simple  winning  and  absorbing 
discourses.  T-he  author  sticks  to  his  business  as  a  winner 
of  souls  and  does  not  assume  to  teach  the  church  its  doc- 
trine. He  takes  the  gospel  as  it  stands  and  as  he  has  re- 
ceived it,  and  applies  to  it  a  method  of  cumulative  or 
progressive  illustration  which  strikes  us  as  something  fresh, 
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"Avoiding,  technical  terms  and  commonplace  expres- 
sions, the  author  makes  important  the  substance  of  the 
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**These  fervent  evangelistic  utterances  are  just  what  the 
church  of  God  needs  to-day.  The  author  dwells  very 
much  on  the  Holy  Spirit's  work  in  the  individual.  No 
one  has  ever  given  us  a  more  forcible  presentation  of  this 
great  doctrine  than  Mr.  Ostronx,  in  his  book."— J^f 
Baltimore  Methodist. 

Selections  from  the  "Tongue  of  Fire.". 

32  pages,  5c.  each,  35c.  per  dozen,  $2.50 
per  hundred. 

These  selections  are  taken  from  the  Rev.  William 
Arthur's  great  book,  **The  Tongue  of  Fire."  They 
Are  arranged  specially  to  accommodate  young  and  extra 
busy  people. 

**Soul,  Cease  Thine  Ease." 

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Out  of  The  Cain-life 
Into  The  Christ-life. 


BY 


OF  pmce^^ 

DEC   18  1963 


REV*  Henry  Ostrom, 

EVANGELIST. 


Not  as  Cain. — I  John,  iii :  J  2, 
Christ  liveth  in  me. — Galatians,  ii :  20. 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

Chicago  New  York  Toronto 


COPYEIGHTED 

1896 
FLEMING  H.  EEVELL  COMPANY 


TO  MY  DEVOTED  WIFE, 


PREFACE. 

An  apology  for  the  appearance  of  this  little 
book  would  be  superfluous.  An  all  but  limitless 
subject  calls  for  a  plentitude  of  expressions. 
More  hewers  will  yet  be  needed  before  a  clear 
path  through  the  forest  of  self  has  been  hewn  out. 

These  chapters  have  grown  forth  during  my 
three  years  labors  as  an  Evangelist.  During 
these  years  the  conviction  has  thrilled  my  very 
soul  that  Mercy,  Kindness  and  Love  must  be  set 
forth  unbeclouded  before  the  people  of  this  age. 
Our  diminutive  life  will  never  sweep  out  into  its 
intended  vastness  until  the  gentler  graces  flow 
into  the  most  delicate  and  extreme  channels  of 
the  being. 

The  coming  victory  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
waits  only  upon  true  unity  of  spirit  among  the 
people  called  Christians.  Let  the  Christ-spirit 
supplant  the  Cain-spirit  and  we  shall  not  so 
readily  wonder  what  Jesus  meant  when  yet  stand- 
ing upon  this  earth  he  said  to  Nicodemus,  '  'Even 
the  Son  of  Man  which  is  in  heaven,"  for  in  that 
spirit  heaven  meets  earth  and  laps  over  it. 

Should  these  pages  prove  to  be  the  Holy  Spirit's 


4  PREFACE 

messengers  of  help  to  any,  then  those  aged  and 
younger  people  who  have  requested  their  publi- 
cation and  assisted  in  their  production  will  find 
eternal  fruitage  from  their  words. 

They  have  been  written  in  the  midst  of  active 
undertakings  in  my  evangelistic  work,  and  if  it 
should  appear  in  any  instance  that  the  lines  of 
thought  show  a  very  light  touch  of  the  pen,  the 
reader  can  always  find  the  key  to  the  meaning  of 
my  message  in  the  words  of  a  Christian  Philan- 
throphist,  "People  seem  to  forget  that  it  is 
manly  to  be  godly."  Henry  Ostrom. 

'  Note.— Most  of  the  Scripture  quotations  used  in  this  book  are 
taken  from  the  Revised  Version. 


CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Preface 3 

Chapter  1. 

The  Cain-Life 9 

Chaptee  2. 

The  Common  Lot 37 

Chapter  3. 

The  Christ  Miracle 47 

Chapter  4. 

The  Mastery  of  Christ 65 

Chapter  5. 

Etchings  of  the  Redemptive  Idea 93 

Chapter  6. 

Christian  Redemption 107 

Chapter  7. 

The  Redemption  of  Sorrow 189 

Chapter  8. 

The  Divine  Unfolding 143 

Chapter  9. 

The  Needed  Gift 161 

Chapter  10. 

The  Seven-Fold  Revealing 189 

(1.)    The  Universal  Revelation. 
(2.)    The  Scripture  Revelation. 
(3.)    The  Revelation  of  Self  and  Sin. 
(4.)     The  Revelation  of  Salvation. 


6  CONTENTS 

(5.)    The  Revealing  of  the  Direct  Witness. 
(6.)    The  Revelation  in  the  Godly  Life. 
(7.)    Special  Revelations  to  Faith. 

Chapter  11. 
The  Holy  Spirit  Asserting  Jesus 215 

Chapter  12. 
Strengthened  with  Power 237 

Chapter  13. 
The  Unfailing  Grace 259 

Chapter  14. 
Some  Christian  Symbols  o  the  Holy  Spirit 279 

Chapter  15. 
Not  Your  Own 311 

Chapter  16. 
Receiving  the  Holy  Spirit 327 


THE  CAIN-LIFE. 


"  The  Bible  will  be  honest  with  you,  and  while  it  makes 
all  admissions,  on  certain  grounds,  as  to  what  differenti- 
ates you  f  rom  other  people  who  are  dishonorable  and  dis- 
honest and  have  broken  vows  outwardly  it  goes  straight 
into  the  conscience  and  says,  '  After  all  you  are  a  sin- 
ner, you  are  smitten  with  an  incurable  disease  which 
knows  no  remedy  save  the  knowledge  and  experience  of 
which  come  not  from  earth  but  straight  and  miracu- 
lously from  heaven.'"  Rev.  John  MacNeil. 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  where  is  Abel  thy 
brother  ?  And  he  said  I  Imow  not:  Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper  f  And  he  said  what  hast  thou  done  f— Genesis, 
IV:  9,  10. 

"  And  apart  from  races  we  deem  barbarous,  is  not  the 
passion  for  dominion  and  wealth  and  power  accountable 
for  the  worst  chapters  of  cruelty  and  oppression  written 
in  the  world's  history  ?  Few  people — perhaps  none — are 
free  from  this  reproach.  What  indeed  is  true  civilization? 
By  its  fruit  you  shall  know  it.  It  is  not  dominion, 
wealth,  material  luxury,  nay,  not  even  a  great  literature 
and  education,widespread— good  though  these  be.  Civili- 
zation is  not  a  veneer;  it  must  penetrate  to  the  very  heart 
and  core  of  societies  of  men.  Its  true  signs  are  thought 
for  the  poor  and  suffering,  chivalrous  regard  and  respect 
for  woman,  the  frank  recognition  of  human  brother- 
hood, irrespective  of  race  or  color  or  nation  or  religion, 
the  love  of  ordered  freedom,  abhorrence  of  what  is  mean 
and  cruel  and  vile;  ceaseless  devotion  to  the  claims  of 
justice.  Civilization  in  that,  its  true,  its  highest  sense, 
must  make  for  peace."  Sir  Charles  Russell, 

Lord  Chief  Justkie  of  England. 


THE  CAIN-LIFE. 

T 17"  HERE  the  fields  of  art  bear  their  newest 
'  "  growths,  the  head  of  Cain,  the  first-born  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  is  rising  into  prominence.  In 
the  art  galleries  of  Europe  and  America  the 
traveler  is  surprised  to  find  this  man  pictured 
and  sculptured  so  often.  That  it  would  be  an 
unspeakably  blessed  circimistance  if  the  spirit  of 
this  first  son  of  humanity  could  be  entirely  ban- 
ished from  our  race,  so  that  it  finds  expression 
nowhere  upon  earth,  saving  in  stone  or  on  can- 
vas, there  to  remind  all  men  of  their  deliverance 
from  the  Cain-life  until  they  rejoice  and  serve  in 
the  very  spirit  of  Jesus  the  Christ,  shall  be 
the  burden  of  the  message  here  set  forth. 

''Not  as  Cain,"  says  the  aged  apostle  John 
when  he  would  plainly  present  to  the  people 
''a  model  to  avoid,"  for  Cain  "was  of  that 
wicked  one,  and  slew  his  brother,"  when  jealousy 
had  grasped  him  as  if  soul  and  body  had  been 
grasped  and  thrown  down  against  the  righteous 
conduct  of  Abel.  If,  as  so  many  think.  Eve 
really  believed  that  her  first-born  was  the  Messiah, 
how  sadly  disappointed  she  must  have  felt  when 


10  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

her  bruised  hopes  lay  at  the  feet  of  this  cringing, 
self-excusing  murderer.  But  whatever  she  may- 
have  thought,  either  then  or  previously  about 
the  mission  of  her  boy,  she  knew  that  she  was  his 
own  mother  and  you  and  I  know  that  Cain  is  our 
own  brother  ! 

Yes.  Cain,  too,  is  our  brother.  He  might 
all  but  disown  that  dear  bond  with  Abel,  but 
we  can  not  disown  Cain.  The  poor  murderer. 
Opportunity  has  been  piled  up  into  heights  since 
he  thrust  his  brother  down,  and  the  word 
"brother"  has  always  been  kept  higher  than 
opportunity,  for  that  word  does  not  abide  in 
the  mere  letter  of  the  law.  It  breathes  the 
spirit  of  the  deathless  law  of  love.  So,  we  can 
not  disown  Cain.  The  pity  is  that  we  have  been 
like  smaller  or  younger  brothers  copying  his 
ways  and  drinking  of  his  spirit  instead  of  nobly 
setting  up  the  standard  of  love  to  attract  our 
fellow  men  from  the  Cain-spirit.  For  this  sad 
reason  our  kinship  is  to  be  deplored.  That 
we  can  not  disown  it  may  appear  more  real  to 
us  as  we  consider  how  our  hands  have  been 
lifted  in  the  very  same  positions  as  Cain's  and 
our  hearts  too  have  burned  with  the  same  slaying 
heat,  while  God  said  to  us  "  Where  is  thy 
brother  ?  " 

But  there   has   appeared   amid  the  centuries 
another  brother,  even  Jesus  the  Christ.    We  may 


THE  CAIN-LIFE  H 

well  wish  to  wash  our  lips  as  we  apply  such  a  title 
as  "  Brother  "  to  him  whose  every  act  and  word 
stand  forth  in  history  as  the  light  and  life  of  men. 
But  let  us  by  faith  claim  the  kinship  with  him 
and  seek  to  find  all  our  fellow  men  in  this  family, 
in  the  kinship  of  which  life  is  given  rather  than 
taken,  and  salvation  rather  than  murder  is 
written  over  the  door  of  the  heart. 

The  elevator  of  human  history  fell  with  a  crash 
when  man  became  a  sinner.  Adam  was  in  that 
falling  elevator.  And  the  splinters  flew  every- 
whither. They  wounded  Cain.  They  have  since 
been  festering  the  race.  Adam  sinned  directly 
against  God,  Cain  sinned  directly  against  man. 
Adam  excused  himself  by  casting  the  blame  upon 
the  woman,  Cain  excused  himself  by  pleading 
ignorance.  Adam  was  a  rebel,  Cain  was  a  mur- 
derer. 

What  heart  can  conceive  the  awful  change 
which  must  have  come  into  the  nature  of  Adam 
when  he  undertook  to  hide  away  from  God.  But 
would  not  the  change  in  the  relation  between 
man  and  man  be  equally  marked  and  awful,  how 
awful  did  not  really  appear  until  Cain  had  caused 
the  blood  of  his  brother  to  flow  out  upon  the  unfor- 
giving earth. 

I  desire  you  to  study  with  me  not  so  much  the 
act  of  Cain  as  the  spirit  of  the  man.  The  Cain- 
spirit,    the  Cain-life  is  a   murderous    life.       We 


12  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

must  not  over-estimate  the  extent  to  which 
this  spirit  has  affected  us,  for  this  would  be  to 
slander  humanity,  but  on  the  other  hand  we  may 
well  pray  to  be  kept  from  condoning  or  overlook- 
ing it,  lest,  deceiving  ourselves,  we  lower  the 
standard  of  character,  and  when  you  lower  that 
you  can  heighten  nothing. 

That  murderous  spirit  has  scattered  its  conta- 
gion among  humanity  until  there  is  a  little  mur- 
der in  us  all.  Anger,  strife,  scorn,  heartless 
competition,  malice,  wrath,  the  look  of  reproach, 
the  unforgiving  spirit,  these  would  never  have 
been  known  to  exist  between  man  and  man  had 
not  the  Cain-spirit  crimsoned  the  race.  The 
drooping  arms  of  Cain  form  on  either  side  the 
water-shed  of  the  human  race.  See  how  instead 
of  the  tropical  gulfs  of  peace  and  good  will 
among  men,  receiving  ever  fresh  and  full  supply, 
this  murderous  spirit  has  sent  forth  the  chilly 
waves  of  rebellion  and  anger  until  they  have  be- 
come frozen  into  treacherous  heights  against 
which  the  millions  have  dashed  into  shipwreck. 
Had  Cain  raised  his  right  hand  unto  his  God  and 
lowered  his  left  hand  helpfully  to  his  brother, 
peace  on  earth,  good  will  among  men  might  this 
very  moment  have  charmed  the  whole  race  into 
the  REST  of  its  God. 

Then  man  would  have  lived  for  his  fellows,  each 
man  would  have  been  a  benediction  to  all  other  men 


THE   CAIN-LIFE  13 

— no  conflict,  no  discord,  but  sweetest  accord  and 
harmony  would  have  prevailed.  The  united 
whole  family  would  have  abode  in  peace,  and 
each  man's  character  would  have  been  a  pure 
fountain  out  of  which  his  fellows  would  have 
drunken,  each  in  turn,  producing  an  increase  of 
benedictions  for  the  other  so  naturally  that  even 
angels  would  have  had  a  joy  in  it,  all  free  from 
astonishment  as  they  would  have  said,  "Behold 
how  these  children  love  each  other." 

But  how  wide  the  contagion  has  spread,  how 
plentiful  the  poisonous  crop  which  has  grown 
from  the  Cain-spirit.  At  its  root  it  may  appear 
to  be  little  more  than  self-assertion,  or  self-inde- 
pendence. Now  any  man  can  assert  his  own 
independence,  yes,  any  devil  can  do  that  much, 
but  it  took  the  Son  of  G-od  to  be  great  enough  to 
make  himself  of  no  reputation,  taking  upon  him 
the  form  of  a  servant,  to  lay  down  his  life  for  the 
world.  Self-assertion!  Yes,  indeed,  little  chil- 
dren have  had  their  happy  hours  blighted  and 
blasted  with  its  murderous  sweep.  Oh,  the  pity 
of  it!  Two  little  children  could  not  play  together 
without  the  quarrel.  A  sweet  little  girl  of  four 
years  was  talking  very  rapidly  and  eagerly  to 
her  father,  who  had  returned  home  after  a  pro- 
longed absence.  Her  little  brother,  who  was  two 
years  her  senior,  whispered  humorously  to  the 
father,  "She  thinks  she  is  mistress  here,  don't 


14  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

she  ?"  The  little  girl  immediately  requested  of 
the  father  to  tell  her  what  her  brother  had  said, 
when  the  following  episode  occurred: 

Father:  ''Oh,  it's  a  secret  between  him  and 
me,  you  never  mind." 

Little  daughter  cries  piteously. 

Father:  "My  darling,  you  must  not  cry  so. 
Why  I  thought  you  were  having  such  a  nice  time ; 
now  let  us  go  right  on  with  our  visit." 

Little  daughter :  "I  want  to  know  what  he 
said  when  he  whispered  to  you." 

Father:  "My  son,  tell  her  what  you  said  to 
me." 

The  little  boy :  '  'No,  papa,  she  does  not  need 
to  know  what  I  said. " 

Father:     "Yes,  my  son,  you  tell  her." 

The  little  boy:     "No,   papa,  I  don't  want  to." 

Father:  "My  son,  you  must  tell  your  sister 
what  you  said." 

Little  boy :  '  'I  said  that  you  thought  that  you 
were  mistress  around  here." 

Little  daughter  greatly  increases  her  crying. 

Father :  ' '  My  son,  throw  you  arms  about  your 
little  sister's  neck  and  tell  her  you  are  sorry  to 
have  grieved  her." 

Little  boy:     " I  don't  want  to. " 

Father:  "Yes,  my  dear,  you  must  tell  her  you 
are  sorry.  Throw  your  arms  about  her  neck  and 
kiss  her,  right  away." 


THE  CAIN-LIFB  15 


The  act  is  done. 

Little  daughter :  ' '  Papa,  he  did  not  kiss  me 
at  all,  he  just  put  his  lips  up  against  my  face." 

The  father:  "My  son,  I  can  not  tell  you  again 
— throw  your  arms  about  your  sister's  neck,  kiss 
her  and  tell  her  you  are  sorry." 

The  hearty  spirit  of  forgiveness  was  evident, 
the  crying  had  ceased,  the  visit  was  resumed,  and 
the  children  were  once  more  under  the  dominion 
of  love ;  but  through  all  the  preceding  stages  of 
this  episode  there  was  evident  the  Cain-spirit. 
The  little  children  who  belong  to  Jesus,  and  who 
are  the  heirs  of  his  kingdom,  find  the  same 
tempter  who  induced  Cain  to  slay  his  brother 
blighting  their  play  hours  with  a  deadly  spirit  of 
strife. 

They  grow  up,  until  a  dozen  summers  have 
passed  and  the  little  school  quarrels  come;  less 
than  a  dozen  more  years  have  passed,  and  the  un- 
willingness to  speak  with  each  other  or  the  oppo- 
sition in  conversation  against  each  other  comes 
into  the  field.  At  mid-age  and  in  old  age  the 
strife  becomes  hot,  intense,  and  spiteful.  Plots 
and  murders  are  but  the  outbreakings  of  the 
same,  one,  common  spirit;  it  gets  into  the  na- 
tions, it  gets  into  the  churches,  it  gets  into  the 
families.  Andrew  Murray  has  said,  "In  these 
later  times,  even  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  a  cause  of  separation.     Let  us  learn  not  to  ex- 


16  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

pect  that  all  should  think  the  same  or  express 
themselves  in  the  same  way;  let  our  first  care  be 
to  exercise  love,  gentleness,  kindness.  We  often 
think  we  are  valiant  for  the  truth,  and  we  forget 
that  God's  word  commands  us  to  speak  the  truth 
in  love.''' 

Men  are  known  to  live  within  a  hundred  yards 
of  their  fellow  men  for  twenty  years  without 
speaking  to  them.  Members  of  the  same  family 
will  live  in  the  same  city  for  years  without  greet- 
ing each  other;  and  if  they  resolve  that  they  will 
come  out  of  this  awful  thraldom  of  the  Cain-life 
they  find  it  next  to  impossible  to  do  it.  A  woman 
who  was  a  member  of  the  Christian  church  arose 
in  a  prayer  meeting  one  morning  and  said,  "I 
would  like  to  be  excused  from  this  meeting.  I 
want  to  go  and  see  a  friend  of  mine  to  whom  I 
have  not  spoken  for  three  years.  She  lives  in 
this  city  and  I  must  see  her."  That  woman  re- 
tired from  the  meeting  and  appeared  again  at  the 
afternoon  service.  When  asked  if  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  meeting  that  neighbor,  with  whom  she 
had  not  spoken  for  so'long,  she  answered,  '  'No,  I 
went  to  her  home  three  times  but  failed  to  gain 
admission."  "Could  not  we  help  you  find  her? 
How  far  away  does  she  live?"  "Oh,"  said  the 
woman,  "she  lives  less  than  three  blocks  from 
my  home.  She  is  my  sister."  Here  were  two 
people  born  of  the  same  mother,  nursed  at  the 


THE  CAIN-LIFE  17 


same  bosom,  rocked  in  the  same  cradle  and  called 
by  the  same  surname,  living  in  the  same  city,  so 
thoroughly  enslaved  by  the  Cain-spirit  that  they 
had  not  spoken  to  each  other  for  three  years. 

In  one  of  my  meetings  there  sat  a  man  whose 
face  wore  the  expression  of  intelligence  but  who 
appeared  very  much  dejected.     At  the  close  of 
the  meeting  I  said  to  him,    ' '  My  friend,  are  you 
in  trouble?"     "Well,"  said  he,    "I  am  a  church 
member  and  I  do  not  think  I  am  living  right. " 
"Then,"  said  I,  "do  you  know  what  the  difficulty 
is  ? "     After   deep  sighing   with   many   nervous 
gestures,  he  replied,  "Yes,  I  have  an  uncle  living 
in  this  city,  and  between  him  and  me  there  arose 
a  difference  some   years  ago,  and  we  have  not 
spoken  to  each  other  during  all  these  years.     I 
feel  that  I  ought  to  go  and  see  him,  but  he  does 
not  profess  to  be  a  Christian  and  I  do  not  know 
how  he   will  receive  me."     He  promised  to  see 
his  uncle  about  the  matter  that  night.     He  con- 
sented  that  I  should  accompany  him   until  we 
came  to  the  corner  of  the  street  which  led  up  to 
the  home  of  his  uncle,  then  he  told  me  that  he 
would  go  alone  and  that  all  would  be  well.     I 
wished  him  the  abundant  blessing  of  God  upon 
his   splendid  decision  and  bade  him  good-night. 
Next   day  he  sat  in  the  meeting  the  picture  of 
dejection  still.     After  we  had  concluded  the  pub- 
lic service  I  approached  him  and  asked  him  how 


18  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

he  succeeded  with  his  uncle.  "O,  "  said  he,  ''I 
went  right  up  to  the  door  of  his  house,  but  I 
could  not  go  in."  Then  he  promised  me  that  he 
would  go  and  see  his  uncle  immediately.  That 
night  he  returned,  O,  so  dejected.  I  approached 
him  again  and  said,  ' '  You  have  not  seen  your 
uncle."  "No,  sir,"  said  he.  Then  we  prayed 
together.  He  wept  and  pleaded  with  God  to 
grant  him  grace  sufficient  to  make  him  strong 
enough  to  speak  to  that  uncle.  Ah!  the  struggle. 
The  next  time  I  saw  this  man  he  was  approach- 
ing me  on  the  street,  his  head  was  erect,  his  step 
was  elastic  and  his  face  was  beaming.  Before  he 
had  gotten  near  enough  to  me  for  us  to  shake 
hands,  he  said,  "I  saw  my  uncle.  It  is  all 
right  now."  "Well,"  said  this  conqueror,  fresh 
out  of  the  Cain-life,  ' '  I  went  into  the  house  and 
told  my  uncle  about  the  difference.  I  said  that  I 
had  always  thought  he  was  in  the  fault  in  the 
matter,  but  I  could  plainly  see  now  that  I  had 
not  shown  him  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  I  had 
made  up  my  mind  to  live  a  Christly  life  hence- 
forth and  I  wished  him  to  forgive  me  for  not 
having  done  so  before.  O,  you  should  have  seen 
him ;  he  threw  his  hands  down  on  the  arms  of  the 
chair  and  said,  '  I  could  not  have  done  it,  I  could 
not  have  done  it.'  "  No,  the  natural  man  can  not 
from  the  heart  perform  such  a  great  act,  neither 


THE  CAIN-LIFE  19 


can  he  account  for  it,  but  when  he  sees  it  an  im- 
pression of  the  divine  presence  affects  his  soul. 

A  vast  revival  undertaking  was  practically- 
snow-bound  with  a  yard  of  carpet  about  which 
two  prominent  church  members  had  quarreled, 
and  we  did  not  know  that  the  quarrel  existed  un- 
til they  confessed  it  and  forgave  each  other;  then 
the  revival  proceeded.  Another  revival  was 
full-fledged  in  a  day,  by  a  Sunday-School  superin- 
tendent and  a  leading  church  worker  giving  up 
disagreement  and  each  requesting  the  other's 
prayers.  Over  and  over  and  over  again  this 
truth  is  verified  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  question, 
"  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  dis- 
ciples when  ye  have  love  one  to  another."  When 
sermons  and  songs  and  arguments,  when  plead- 
ings and  strugglings  have  failed,  the  spirit  of 
Christian  love  will  make  a  channel  through  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  will  reach  the  hardest  infidel  in 
the  community.  These  cases  are  rather  typical 
than  extreme.  The  Cain-spirit  is  not  incidental, 
it  is  in  the  flavor  of  the  natural  character,  and 
when  analyzed  Paul  calls  it  "  bitterness." 

1.  The  New  Testament  description  of  the  nat- 
ural man  is  very  explicit.  When  I  say  the  nat- 
ural man  I  use  the  word  "natural"  in  its  com- 
monly accepted  meaning.  Really  to  become  a 
Christian  is  in  the  highest  sense  to  become  natu- 


so  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ral,  for  as  William  Arthur  has  said,  '  <  As  sinners 
our  nature  is  unnatural." 

Let  us  look  at  some  of  these  descriptions  of  the 
natural  man  as  given  in  the  New  Testament. 
' '  From  that  time  forth  began  Jesus  to  show  unto 
his  disciples  how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem, 
and  suffer  many  things  of  the  elders  and  chief 
priests  and  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  be  raised 
again  the  third  day.  Then  Peter  took  him  and 
began  to  rebuke  him,  saying,  be  it  far  from  thee, 
Lord :  this  shall  not  be  unto  thee.  But  he  turned 
and  said  unto  Peter,  G-et  thee  behind  me  Satan; 
thou  art  an  offense  unto  me ;  for  thou  savourest 
not  the  things  that  be  of  God,  but  those  that  be 
of  men.  Then  Jesus  said  unto  his  disciples,  if 
any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  him- 
self, and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me.  For 
whosoever  shall  save  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and 
whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find 
it."     Matt,  xvi:  21-25. 

See  how  clearly  Jesus  teaches  here  that  the 
natural  man  is  an  unsacrificial  being ;  he  does  not 
believe  in  going  to  his  Calvary  but  rather  the  op- 
posite. That  very  spirit  which  made  the  Caesars 
build  their  thrones  upon  the  sufferings  of  their 
fellow  men  is  the  spirit  of  the  natural  man.  That 
very  spirit  of  the  Pueblo  Indian  which  made  him 
scalp  a  white  man  that  he  might  himself  inherit 
some  ability  which  the  white  man  had,  so  that 


THE   CAIN-LIFE  31 

the  more  scalps  he  could  fasten  to  his  girdle  the 
more  of  other  men's  abilities  he  thought  he  had 
captured — that  is  the  spirit  of  the  natural  man 
and  is  it  not  the  Cain-spirit?  Christ  came  into 
the  world,  teaching  us  greatness  in  sacrifice, 
''Take  up  your  cross  and  follow  me."  I  think  if 
he  were  saying  it  to-day  he  would  use  some  such 
expression  as,  '  'Follow  me  to  the  very  gallows  or 
to  the  electrocutioner's  chair."  "Lose  your  life," 
saith  he.  The  natural  man  does  not  believe  in  it, 
and  were  it  not  for  those  mild  etchings  repre- 
sented by  such  types  of  character  as  that  of  the 
mother,  we  would  hardly  find  a  vestige  of  a  hint 
of  the  sacrificial  left  in  the  race.  It  was  no  mere 
touch  of  insight  into  human  character  which 
caused  Isaiah  to  say:  "Cease  from  man  whose 
breath  is  in  his  nostrils. "  I  do  not  mean  now  to  say 
simply  that  man  is  a  sinner  and  unreliable  by  na- 
ture, but  I  mean  that  my  reader  and  I  shall  so 
see  m^an  that  we  shall  know  that  the  sacrificial 
life  is  not  naturally  welcome  to  him.  Man  has 
not  only  lost  his  loyalty  to  G-od,  but  he  has  lost 
that  holy  charm  of  the  divine  nature  which  has 
been  the  secret  of  all  mercy  ever  shown  to  needy 
rebels.  Poor  selfish  soul,  afraid  of  circumstances 
and  afraid  of  death,  bethink  thee  God  made  thee 
to  have  dominion  and  to  rule,  but  never  canst 
thou  take  thy  victorious  position  until  thou  hast 
the  sacrificial  spirit. 


22  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

2.  The  natural  man  is  given  to  mingle  re- 
ligion and  worldliness.  When  Jesus  said  to  the 
people,  "Ye  can  not  serve  God  and  mammon," 
and  "No  man  can  serve  two  masters,"  he  had 
just  drawn  a  remarkable  picture  of  business 
shrewdness,  closing  it  up  with  the  expression  of 
the  sacrificial  spirit  in  business,  and  Luke  says, 
"Immediately  the  Pharisees  who  were  lovers  of 
money  heard  all  these  things  and  they  scoffed  at 
him."  Jesus  replied,  "That  which  is  exalted 
among  men  is  abomination  in  the  sight  of  God." 
(See  Luke,  ch.  16.)  Here  Jesus  used  the  word 
"men"  as  he  did  in  the  previous  case  when 
speaking  to  Peter.  Why  did  he  not  say  that 
which  is  exalted  of  the  devil?  Or,  when  speak- 
ing to  Peter,  why  did  he  not  say  thou  mindest 
not  the  things  of  God  but  the  things  of  the  devil. 
No,  in  each  case  he  uses  the  word  "men." 

The  natural  man  has  the  Cain-spirit,  and  he 
wants  to  mingle  religion  and  worldliness.  Christ 
came  proclaiming  God  as  the  manager  of  business, 
saying  in  his  message,  ' '  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God, "  promising  clothing  and  food  to  be  added.  He 
would  have  nothing  secular;  he  would  lift  every 
necessary  toil  and  business  transaction  up  into  the 
sacred  realm,  and  make  life,  all  life,  religious.  But 
the  natural  man  has  shut  this  out  from  his  view; 
he  sees  what  he  calls  prosperity;  he  does  not  see 
God.     He  talks  about  making  a  living,  forgetting 


THE   CAIN-LIFE  23 


that  making  a  living  is  surely  the  least  duty  in  this 
life.  He  proposes  to  exhale  righteousness  before 
he  has  inhaled  it.  He  would  shut  the  whole  uni- 
verse out  from  his  vision  by  holding  a  penny 
before  each  eye.  Worldliness  is  blind.  It  is 
money-blind. 

3.  The  natural  man  is  a  vain- glorious  being. 
*<How  can  ye  believe,"  says  Christ,  "which 
receive  glory  one  of  another,  and  the  glory  that 
cometh  from  the  only  G-od  ye  seek  not." — 
John  v:  44.  Just  ten  verses  preceding  this  Jesus 
said,  ''The  witness  I  receive  is  not  from  man." 
Now,  Christ  loves  the  witness  of  the  regenerated 
man,  but  man  as  he  is,  the  natural  man  can  not 
bring  acceptable  witness  to  the  Christ.  Jesus 
could  not  exalt  and  commend  Herod,  but  he  could 
exalt  and  commend  Mary  Magdalen  after  she  was 
saved,  for  she  had  lost  the  Cain-spirit  and  found 
true  character.  The  natural  man  does  not  reckon 
values  properly;  he  does  not  see  the  worth  of 
Jesus.  Jesus  came,  completely  changing  the  idea 
of  greatness.  The  natural  man  believes  that  it 
is  great  to  be  exalted.  Jesus  teaches  that  it  is 
great  to  serve.  The  Cain-spirit  kills  the  brother, 
the  Jesus-spirit  prays  for  its  murderers.  Oh,  let 
us  lose  our  vain-glory,  and  find  to-day  that 
humility  which  comes  from  the  very  life  of  the 
Spirit  of  Grod.  Your  lamp  turned  up  too  high 
will  smoke  and  sputter;  turn  it  down  and  it  will 


24  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

give  light  to  all  the  family.  The  light  of  the  soul 
appears  when  burnished  with  service. 

4.  The  natural  man  is  spiteful.  Said  Jesus  to 
his  disciples,  ' '  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for 
my  name's  sake."  Matt.  x:22.  He  had  told 
the  disciples  that  men  would  deliver  them  up. 
He  warned  them  to  beware  of  men.  He  did  not 
here  say  beware  of  Satan,  but  of  men.  The  nat- 
ural man  is  spiteful.  In  the  18th  chapter  of 
Matthew's  Gospel  a  record  is  made  of  Jesus' 
touching  parable  of  the  king  who  forgave  his  serv- 
ant, being  moved  with  compassion ;  and  the  serv- 
ant in  turn  taking  his  fellow  servant  who  owed 
him,  by  the  throat  says,  "Pay  what  thou  owest." 
He  refused  all  pleas  and  cast  his  fellow-servant 
into  prison.  Then  the  king  said,  ' '  Thou  wicked 
servant,  I  forgave  thee  all  that  debt  because  thou 
besoughtest  me;  shouldst  not  thou  also  have  had 
mercy  on  thy  fellow-servant,  even  as  I  had  mercy 
on  thee?"  The  servant  is  delivered  to  the  tor- 
mentors and  Jesus  adds,  ' '  So  shall  my  Heavenly 
Father  do  unto  you  if  ye  forgive  not  every  one 
his  brother  from  your  hearts.  This  spiteful 
spirit  may  not  come  out  in  words  or  deeds,  but  it 
is  in  the  man,  and  to  be  a  Christian  implies  its 
banishment. 

A  young  man  who  was  near  death  professed  to 
give  himself  to  Christ.  He  had  been  an  avowed 
infidel.     One  morning  he  said,  "  O,  I  trust  I  am 


THE  CAIN-LIFE 


saved,  but  the  slightest  mistake  my  wife  makes 
in  arranging  my  pillows  or  anything  else  about 
my  room  makes  me  so  angry. "  When  told  that  he 
must  not  speak  hastily  to  his  young  wife,  for  it 
might  grieve  her  sadly  in  after  years,  he  said  ' '  I 
do  not  say  anything,  but  I  feel  it,  I  feel  it. "  What  is 
an  expression  of  heated  anger  but  the  emphasis  of 
this  vicious  spirit,  made  noticeable  by  some  spec- 
ial strategy  of  the  enemy. 

5.  The  natural  man  is  jealous.  How  the  fol- 
lowing words  burn  into  our  feelings  as  we  write 
them,  < 'Pilate  knew  that  for  envy  the  chief 
priests  had  delivered  Christ  up."  Matt,  xxvii: 
18.  Paul  says,  "Whereas  there  is  among  you 
jealousy  and  strife;  are  ye  not  carnal  and  walk  af- 
ter the  manner  of  men."  Now,  mark  you,  he  does 
not  say  after  the  manner  of  Satan,  but  men,  nat- 
ural men.  Jealousy  and  strife  are  almost  living 
forms.  You  can  almost  photograph  them.  When 
two  people  are  under  the  influence  of  either  the 
one  or  the  other  of  these  vices,  it  is  as  if  a  third 
person  of  hideous  appearance  and  hellish  char- 
acter sat  in  the  same  room  with  them.  You  can 
almost  see  the  finger  in  the  mouth,  and  hear  the 
defiant  clap  of  the  foot  upon  the  floor,  and  this 
awful  power  so  common  to  the  natural  man  is  all 
but  a  visible  spirit,  is  the  Cain-spirit.  On  its 
account  Christ  was  delivered  up.  Is  there  no 
sacred  place  on  earth,  no  lovely  order,  no  prec- 


26  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ious  aim,  no  holy  shrine  on  earth,  where  Satan 
will  not  dare  intrude  with  this  awful  spirit? 

In  great  church  assemblies,  amid  the  city  mis- 
sionaries and  even  the  foreign  missionaries,  by  the 
coffins  of  the  dead,  and  close  to  the  cross  of  the 
Son  of  Grod,  men  will  debate  who  shall  be  greatest. 
And  if  these  things  do  occur  in  places  of  such 
sacred  vows  and  noble  ambitions,  who  but  the 
Son  of  God  would  be  strong  enough  to  endure  for 
one  moment  the  awful  disharmony  of  the  multi- 
tudes who  willfully  reject  the  way  of  love  and  life. 
The  natural  man  is  anti-Christian.  "  If  I  were 
still  pleasing  men,  I  would  not  be  the  servant  of 
Christ." 

We  may  well  tremble  with  eagerness  to  have 
introduced  to  the  soul's  vision  Christ's  estimate 
of  man's  relation  to  his  fellows,  bearing  in  mind 
meanwhile  that  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
Christ  is  perfect  manhood.  And  if  man  may 
readily  learn  truth  by  contrast,  then  surely 
Jesus  presents  an  overwhelming  claim  for  his 
study.  We  seem  to  forget  what  a  revelation  in 
thinking  and  in  estimating  character  Jesus 
wrought  during  his  brief  ministry  on  this  earth 
in  the  flesh.  He  is  the  Man  from  above;  the 
second  Adam,  the  Life,  the  Way.  Men  did  not 
rush  to  him  in  allegiance.  They  questioned,  they 
argued,  they   started  and  withdrew  again  j  they 


THE  CAIN-LIFE  27 

prayed  and  despised  again ;  but  the  contrast  made 
evident  the  Christ  as  the  ideal  man. 

If  a  considerate  father  could  find  a  perfect  man 
who  was  willing  to  live  with  his  boy,  to  instruct 
him  and  to  inspire  him,  and  to  call  his  son  up  in 
fellowship  with  himself,  think  you  that  he  would 
not  be  willing  to  undergo  any  kind  or  degree  of 
hardship  or  sacrifice  to  have  that  son  under  the 
influence  of  such  a  man.  But  the  perfect  man 
has  appeared,  and  we  are  welcome  not  only  to 
his  influence  but  to  his  life,  his  thrill,  himself. 

To  be  Christly  is  to  be  a  man.  Only  in  so  far 
as  we  fill  out  this  ideal  in  our  characters  have  we 
regained  true  manhood. 

Trace  along  those  drooping  arms  of  Cain,  the 
warping  of  human  influence,  radically  in  contrast 
with  the  Christian  ideal  for  "the  Lord  taketh 
pleasure  in  his  people:"  and  the  only  way  by 
which  you  or  I  can  serve  the  Lord  is  by  using  the 
life  he  imparts  to  us,  in  the  service  of  humanity. 

My  praises  will  never  glorify  God  except  they 
come  from  a  heart  eager  also  to  glorify  humanity. 
My  prayers  can  not  ascend  acceptably  to  the 
Father  in  Heaven  unless  they  carry  in  their  em- 
brace my  brother  upon  earth.  There  is  not  an 
*'I"  or  a  "me"  or  a  "my"  in  all  the  Lord's 
Prayer — it  is  all  "our"  and  "us"  and  "they." 
In  the  condemnation  pronounced  against  the  rich 
man  there  is  no  declaration  of  any  other  wrong  in 


28  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

his  life  excepting  that  he  did  not  provide  for  Laz- 
arus, his  poor  brother.  He  fared  sumptuously 
every  day,  he  was  clothed  in  rich  apparel,  and  he 
withheld  help  from  the  poor  man  laid  at  his  gate. 
That  rich  man  could  not  possibly  find  any  other 
way  to  serve  Grod  but  by  serving  Lazarus.  Laz- 
arus had  been  laid  at  his  gate;  he  was  the  very 
embodiment  of  need.  G-od  could  have  fed  him  as 
in  the  case  of  Elijah  by  employing  ravens,  but 
the  rich  man  was  the  proper  instrument  for  God's 
use  in  this  event,  just  as  Philip  the  Evangelist 
was  the  proper  instrument  for  G-od's  use  when 
the  Ethiopian  eunuch  needed  very  plain  instruc- 
tion concerning  the  way  of  Life.  Jesus  was  ever 
emphasizing  this  upon  the  attention  of  the  people 
in  his  words  and  in  his  practices.  Take  those  re- 
markable sayings  of  his  uttered  on  the  mountain- 
side. I  am  glad  we  do  not  have  to  call  them  ser- 
mons, because  we  are  so  apt  to  fill  in  the  thought 
with  certain  peculiar  interpretations  of  the  occa- 
sion when  we  think  of  sermons.  They  must  be 
about  so  long  and  so  deep,  and  so  thin  and  so 
thick.  The  method  of  preparation,  method  or 
quality  of  reception  must  all  be  reckoned  into  the 
estimate,  before  we  can  tell  whether  they  are 
good  sermons  or  not.  But  Jesus  did  not  call  this 
wonderful  mountain-side  deliverence  a  sermon, 
<' These  sayings  of  mine" — just  a  saying,  you 
know,  some  truth  told  so  that  you  are  captured 


THE  CAIN-LIFE 


by  the  truth  rather  than  the  telling.     The  jewel 
appears  more  prominent  than  the  setting. 

In  these  wonderful  sayings  Jesus  teaches  ten 
specific  duties  toward  man,  every  one  of  which 
implies  great  gentleness,  and  tenderness,  and 
love.  Only  once  in  all  these  sayings  does  he  warn 
us  against  humanity.  Here  it  is,  ' '  Beware  of 
false  prophets."  As  if  to  say,  keep  in  touch 
with  God,  do  not  let  man  side-track  you,  serve 
man  but  do  not  follow  man,  follow  God.  Do  not 
demand  of  him,  make  no  claims  against  him, 
but  help  him.  How  prominently  this  is  seen  in 
the  wording  of  the  Golden  Rule,  "All 
things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them;"  not  demand  of 
them,  but  do  to  them.  Ah,  yes,  surely  this  is  the 
way  of  life,  that  we  should  ' '  by  love  serve  one 
another. "  Again  in  that  wonderful  summing  up  of 
affairs  in  the  25th  Chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  Mat- 
thew the  justification  of  those  on  the  right  hand 
is  based  upon  what  they  did  for  their  fellows,  and 
the  condemnation  of  those  on  the  left  hand  is 
based  upon  what  they  did  not  do  when  their  fel- 
lows were  in  need  of  help.  Here  were  the 
hungry,  the  sick,  the  prisoners,  the :  strangers ; 
the  one  " fed"  and  "visited"  and  "gone  unto" 
and  "taken in;"  the  other  class,  "fed not"  "gone 
not  unto,"  "visited  not"  and  "  taken  not  in.' 
Now  right   here   Jesus  gives    the    great    reason 


30  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

which  lies  deep  under  all  this  interpretation  of 
Christianity,  when  he  says,  •<  Inasmuch  as  ye  did 
it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  did  it  unto 
me,"  or  again,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  did  it  not  unto 
me."  Christ  has  identified  himself  with  hu- 
manity, born  in  human  flesh,  associated  with  hu- 
man company,  going  over  the  human  path  of 
death,  calling  himself  the  Son  of  Man  and  saying 
that  his  children  are  to  be  in  him  as  he  is  in  the 
Father.  Hence  when  I  come  to  serve  Christ  I 
must  look  about  me  to  find  him.  Then  he  says  to 
me,  ''Here  I  am,  and  here, and  here  also."  This 
man  is  sick,  this  man  wayward,  this  poor,  here  is 
another  child  of  want,  here  is  your  enemy, 
yonder  is  the  wild-hearted  woman,  here  is  the 
vicious  criminal,  again  there  is  the  degraded  na- 
ture where  scarcely  an  expression  of  the  divine 
remains  to  identify  it  with  the  Christ,  here  the 
poor,  drivelling  fetish- worshipper.  ' '  Would  you 
serve  me"  Jesus  says,  '  'then  find  me  among  these. " 
Thus  Mrs.  J.  Fowler  Willing,  speaking  of  poor 
girls  and  boys  who  are  employed  in  the  cigarette 
factories  of  New  York,  says,  '<The  really  pathetic 
part  of  the  case  is  the  fact  that  Christ  wanders 
alone  and  uncared  for  through  the  streets." 

There  is  that  wonderful  expression  of  godliness 
written  in  the  13th  Chapter  of  1st  Corinthians, 
liook  at  how  Paul  undertakes  to  analyze  the  un- 


THE   CAIN-LIFE  31 

failing  grace  of  love.  By  far  the  greater  frac- 
tion of  the  analysis  is  given  in  expressions  which 
refer  to  duty  to  man.  And  no  wonder,  when  we 
recall  the  basis  upon  which  this  man's  Chris tly- 
life  was  built.  He  never  used  the  large  word 
himianitarianism,  but  he  was  a  conscious  phon- 
ograph uttering  the  short  word  Christ.  The  word 
altruism  did  not  find  a  place  in  his  writings,  but 
the  words  sacrifice,  debtor,  bond-servant  and 
brother,  did.  Harken,  ' '  I  am  debtor  both  to 
Greeks  and  to  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and 
to  the  foolish."  And  when  Paul  spoke  of  debts,  it 
was  with  no  dishonorable  apathy.  He  meant  to 
undertake  to  pay.  And  our  debts  are  no  less  than 
his. 

The  Epistle  of  James  talks  in  the  plainest  terms 
of  rebuke  against  the  rich  who  despise  the  poor. 

Peter,  in  his  Epistle,  bids  us  rejoice,  "inas- 
much as  we  are  partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings," 
and  adds  his  teachings  concerning  the  duties  of 
individuals  to  each  other  in  the  home.  The  Epis- 
tle of  Jude  tells  us  to  "  save  men  with  fear,  pull- 
ing them  out  of  the  fire." 

And  John  in  the  great  Revelation  seems  to  be 
shouting  down  the  centuries  the  very  essential  of 
the  Gospel,  when  he  says,  ' '  Let  him  that  heareth 
say  come;"  while  his  Epistles  with  strongest  terms 
of  expression  teach  that  no  man  can  love  God 
unless  he  love  his   brother  also.     Here,  then,  is 


32  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  field  of  Christian  service,  wide  as  the  human 
race.  Yes,  wide  as  the  human  race.  There  is 
no  color  line,  no  sex  line,  no  caste,  no  grade  here; 
neither  Jew  nor  Glreek,  neither  male  nor  female, 
neither  bond  nor  free.  With  this  interpretation 
of  humanity,  the  most  elite  person  can  recognize 
without  a  shudder  of  recoiling  how  perfectly  ap- 
propriate it  was  for  Delia,  called  "the  Blue  Bird  " 
of  that  wretched  ante-room  of  hell  in  her  day, 
Mulberry  Bend,  to  subscribe  herself,  when  writ- 
ing to  Mrs.  Whittemore,  who  was  God's  angel  of 
deliverance  to  her,  ' '  your  own  daughter  in 
Christ,"  or  for  Ananias  to  address  Saul  of  Tarsus 
in  holy  gentlemanliness,    "Brother  Saul." 

A  little  while  ago  I  said  that  Jesus  had 
identified  himself  with  humanity  and  that  when 
we  wish  to  serve  man  he  would  point  to  human 
needs  and  say,  "Here  I  am."  But  how?  If 
I  should  undertake  to  serve  humanity,  as  a 
natural  man  it  would  be  impossible.  I  have 
not  the  purchase  power.  We  have  seen  that  the 
natural  man  is  positively  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
service,  but  in  Jesus  the  spirit  of  service  becomes 
my  very  life,  then  seeing  humanity  in  Jesus, 
service  of  the  lowest  or  the  meanest  becomes  a 
privilege  of  rarest  worth.  Now  mark  that  fact, 
we  can  not  naturally  serve  humanity.  We  can 
not  begin  to  pay  the  indebtedness.  True  benefi- 
cence would  never  begin  until  our  debt  is  paid, 


THE   CAIN-LIFE  33 

and  more,  we  have  not  the  moral  grip  to  be 
true  servants  of  humanity,  we  have  not  the 
moral  life,  we  have  not  the  moral  caste  or  tone 
or  flavor.  It  is  not  in  us.  Much  that  is  com- 
mendable has  been  given  to  us,  perhaps  through 
Christian  parentage  or  excellent  influence  in  our 
childhood  days.  But  you  might  as  well  under- 
take to  lift  yourself  up  by  the  laces  of  your  shoes 
as  to  undertake  to  serve  humanity  without 
a  Christly  enthusiasm.  O,  identify  yourself  with 
Christ  and  get  the  purchase  power  which  shall 
lift  you,  and  through  you  a  multitude  of  others 
to  the  very  heart  of  eternal  goodness.  There 
are  not  wanting  approaches  to  this  kind  of  char- 
acter in  men  who  make  no  profession  as  followers 
of  Christ.  Recently  there  has  died  a  Jew  whose 
gifts  of  large  sums  of  money  drawn  from  abnor 
mally  large  sums  in  his  possession  have  caused  his 
name  to  be  upon  many  lips  and  printed  with 
many  types.  And  we  do  well  to  recognize  that 
which  might  be  substituted  by  something  worse 
in  any  man,  but  here  is  the  very  difficulty;  right 
here  you  may,  if  you  will  hear  the  bells  of  warn- 
ing ringing  all  up  and  down  our  days  and  nights, 
humanity  does  not  want  the  gold  of  other  men, 
it  wants  humanity.  Not  it,  but  them.  Rusted 
steel  looks  like  gold  when  lying  in  the  sun  at 
a  distance,  so  do  the  gifts  of  men  look  like 
charity.      Of     course    there    are    not    wanting 


34  OTJT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

those  who  will  take  the  gold,  and  even  those 
who  would  demand  it  by  force,  but  this  is  rather 
the  expression  of  a  diseased  appetite.  We  know 
that  an  indulgence  of  this  will  never  save  human- 
ity. Man  must  give  himself  to  his  fellows. 
*<  Brethren,  if  Christ  laid  down  his  life  for  us, 
we  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  one  another," 
and  let  us  not  be  content  to  endorse  the  general 
programme  which  implies  that  we  are  to  give 
ourselves  to  humanity  in  Christ,  but  let  us 
be  willing  to  put  brain  into  the  problems  and 
sweat  into  the  toils,  let  us  gladly  contribute 
all  our  nerves  to  be  burnt  out  in  toil,  that  hearts 
may  be  warmed  at  their  very  fires  as  they  burn. 
Let  us  undertake  a  life-long  effort,  having  the 
yoke  of  Christ  upon  us  as  if  we  were  oxen  and 
would  plow  from  East  to  West  and  from  West  to 
East  furrow  after  furrow  until  every  thistle 
and  briar  in  all  the  fallow  field  of  human  discord 
has  been  buried  deep  in  death. 


THE  COMMON  LOT. 


*'  The  Bible  is  reunion  perfected,  illustrated  in  the 
God-man  walking-  the  earth,  showing-  the  etiquette  of 
heaven  and  the  possibilities  of  man  reunited  to  God." 
—H,  W,  Warren,  S.  T.  D. 

We  are  memhers  one  of  another. 
Ephesians  iv:  25. 

*'  Obviously  in  Christ's  conception,  to  serve  men  is  to 
serve  Him.  But  this  is  not  the  common  conception;  we 
talk  of  '  divine  service  '  as  if  it  meant  only  prayer  and 
praise  am  1  ne  h  Baring"  of  sermons.  Visiting'  the  father- 
less and  widows  in  their  affliction  we  call  philanthropy, 
and  keeping  one's  self  unspotted  from  the  world  we 
would  probably  call  morality;  but  St.  James  says  that 
these  things  are  religion,  'pure  and  undefiled  before 
God.'  Pure  religion  is  philanthropic  and  true  philan- 
thropy is  religious,  and  to  divorce  the  one  from  the 
other  is  to  libel  and  cripple  both."      Josiah  Steong. 

"  This  learned  I  from  the  shadow  of  a  tree 
That  to  and  fro  did  sway  upon  the  wall; 

Our  shadow  selves — our  influence — may  fall 
Where  we  can  never  be." 


THE  COMMON  LOT. 

r^  IVEN  the  Christly  spirit  of  service  and  we  are 
^-*^  not  without  equipment  as  real  helpers  of  our 
fellows.  God  has  given  to  us  that  great  power  of 
influence  always  at  hand,  more  subtle  than 
electricity,  more  searching  than  the  X-rays,  and 
giving  color  to  other  people's  characters  like  the 
morning  sun  to  the  clouds  which  skirt  the  dawn. 
The  fool  has  influence,  and  the  wise  man  can  not 
live  without  shaping  other  men's  characters. 
Silence  will  influence,  so  will  words.  What  the 
flavor  is  to  the  orange,  what  the  color  is  to  the 
milk,  what  the  tone  is  to  the  bell,  that  in  char- 
acter is  an  awful  might  for  good  or  bad.  It  is 
not  so  much  what  we  say  as  how  we  say  it;  it  is 
not  so  much  what  we  do  as  how  we  do  it. 

A  friend  of  mine  who  is  to-day  a  preacher  of 
the  Gospel  sat  in  a  pew  during  a  religious  service 
when  he  was  a  boy,  and  when  the  preacher  had 
given  an  invitation  for  all  those  who  desired  to 
become  Christians  to  draw  near  to  the  pulpit, 
my  friend  resisted,  stoutly  clinging  to  his  Cain- 
life,  until  a  little  cripple,  using  a  crutch  under 
each  arm,   made  his  way  to  the  aisle  and  toil- 


38  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

somely  to  the  altar  railing.  This  broke  the  Cain- 
spirit  in  my  friend.  He  said:  "I  could  not 
stand  it  to  see  that  cripple  hobble  up  the  aisle,  I 
had  to  go.  I  gave  myself  to  Christ  that  night, 
and  the  influence  of  the  cripple  saved  me. "  Christ 
said  that  virtue  had  gone  out  of  him  when  the 
afflicted  woman  was  healed,  and  Benjamin  Wilson 
in  his  translation  renders  it  ' '  He  perceived  that  a 
power  had  gone  out  of  him  "  If  that  power  but 
reaches  into  the  sphere  of  influence  which  you 
and  I  continuously  carry  with  us,  then  it  will  in- 
deed be  honest  for  us  to  say  with  Paul,  ' '  For  me 
to  live  is  Christ."  Our  Christ  does  not  discount 
the  marvelous  sweep  of  influence  in  little  chil- 
dren. The  quality  of  the  child-life  is  so  reliant 
and  at  its  best  so  guileless!  We  all  know  how 
often  it  is  said  the  little  babe  rules  the  house- 
hold. What  multitudes  of  adults  have  entered 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  through  some  sweet  re- 
quests or  touching  utterances  of  children. 

"  How  often  as  we  crowd  along-  in  life's  on-rushing  mart, 
A  little  seed  from  childish  lips  finds  lodgement  in  the 

heart, 
And  there  takes  root  and  flourishes  in  memory's  living 

bower, 
Until  it  seems  a  sermon  of  the  most  convincing  power. 

But  yesterday  while  grumbling  at  the  slow  descending 

rain. 
And  inwardly  condemning  it,  again  and  yet  again. 
A  baby  sitting  by  my  side  remarked  in  accents  low, 
"  You    shouldn't  scold  it    that  way,    for    rain    makes 

flowers  grow." 


THE  COMMON  LOT  39 

And  when  God  proposed  to  upset  the  throne 
of  the  Caesars  and  bring  in  a  victory  to  humanity, 
no  more  perfect  conception  of  how  to  accomplish 
it  could  be  suggested  than  there  should  be  a  babe 
born  in  a  manger. 

Ah,  it  is  not  a  question  of  age  or  of  social 
standing  or  even  of  experience:  let  us  stand 
aghast  in  the  presence  of  the  truth,  our  common 
influence  over  each  other  is  like  the  ceaseless 
reigning  of  a  miracle.  Benjamin  West  drew  the 
picture  of  the  baby  in  the  cradle,  on  the  clean 
floor  of  his  mother's  kitchen.  His  mother, 
coming  in,  saw  the  picture  and  the  coal  dust  on 
the  floor,  which  had  been  very  recently  scrubbed. 
Taking  little  Benjamin  up  in  her  arms,  she 
kissed  him  affectionately.  In  after  years 
Benjamin  "West  said,  "My  mother's  kiss 
made  me  an  artist."  In  one  of  our  Western 
cities  fire  broke  out  in  a  large  school  building. 
One  of  the  boys  who  had  been  accustomed  to  beat 
the  drum  while  the  children  marched  for  exer- 
cises, with  presence  of  mind  which  would  have 
been  quite  wonderful  for  a  man  of  years,  ran  for 
his  drum,  took  his  stand  in  the  hall-room  and  be- 
gan beating  it,  that  the  children  might  march 
down  and  out  of  the  building  in  order,  averting 
a  stampede.  What  that  boy's  drum  was  to  the 
needs  of  those  schoolmates  of  his,  our  very  ap- 
pearance may  be  in  its  influence  upon  those  who 


40  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

meet  us ;  orderly  marches  or  stampedes  are  neither 
of  them  so  much  produced  by  great  speeches  as 
by  silent  influences.  No  amount  of  arrangement 
will  righten  up  difficulties  when  the  tone  of  affairs 
is  wrong.  The  Christ-spirit,  the  Christ-savor, 
must  supplant  the  Cain-spirit. 

One  might  have  thought  that  our  common  in- 
heritance to  trouble  would  have  made  us,  long 
ago,  more  cautious  about  our  treatment  of  each 
other,  for  trouble  is  such  a  mighty  leveler.  Men 
who  have  been  the  most  distant  toward  each 
other,  and  the  most  individual  in  their  conceptions 
of  life  have  had  the  diffidence  of  their  souls  broken 
up  in  less  than  an  hour  by  a  shipwreck  or  a  fire. 

Some  years  ago  while  journeying  up  one  of  the 
great  canyons  of  Colorado  a  passenger  train  was 
wrecked.  The  tender  was  detached  from  the  en- 
gine and  run  into  the  gulch,  the  baggage  car  was 
turned  on  its  roof  over  the  precipice,  the  track 
was  torn  up,  the  ends  of  the  coaches  broken  in, 
the  water  tanks  bursted,  and  the  lamps  thrown 
here  and  there.  Two  men  were  in  the  baggage 
car,  many  passengers  were  in  the  coaches.  In- 
stantly all  was  confusion  and  haste.  After  the 
two  men  had  been  taken  from  the  baggage  car 
alive,  and  the  passengers  were  given  positions  of 
as  great  comfort  as  could  be  provided  in  that 
place,  they  waited  in  great  eagerness  for  help. 
The  engine  without  the  tender  had  been  run  up 


THE  COMMON  LOT  41 

the  canyon  a  few  miles,  carrying  some  men  to 
telegraph  from  the  lonely  little  mountain -canyon 
depot,  to  the  city  in  the  distance  for  help.  But 
it  was  eight  long  hours  before  they  could  move 
away  from  that  desolate  stopping-place.  The 
wreck  had  occurred  shortly  before  noon  and  all 
were  hungry.  That  morning  one  of  the  tourists 
had  taken  the  precaution  to  provide  a  small 
luncheon  in  a  paper  sack,  thinking  perhaps  that 
thus  equipped  he  might  be  able  to  climb  higher 
up  the  mountain-sides  and  take  in  vaster  sweeps 
of  the  scenery  during  the  day.  Well,  the  wreck 
had  occurred  and  here  were  the  passengers  sitting 
in  little  groups,  or  walking  up  and  down.  Soon 
the  storm  swept  down  the  canyon;  it  rained,  it 
snowed,  it  blew,  it  thundered  and  lightened,  but 
the  travelers  were  all  friends.  It  seemed  as  if 
they  had  all  gone  to  school  together,  each  was 
ready  to  converse  with  the  other,  and  during  this 
sweet  sway  of  social  courtesy  this  one  man  with 
the  little  paper  sack  of  luncheon  was  distributing 
the  food  among  more  than  a  dozen  people.  The 
first  to  receive  a  part  of  the  luncheon  was  a  poor 
Swedish  woman  whose  two  children  were  crying 
with  hunger,  next  were  two  women  wearing  costly 
garments  and  jewels  and  next  were  their  hus- 
bands. So  one  after  the  other  received  a  little 
portion,  sharing  in  homeliest  style  the  luncheon. 
Trouble  did  it.     I  do  not  say  that  they  should 


42  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

have  been  so  free  in  conversation  before  the  wreck 
occurred  or  that  it  would  have  been  necessary  for 
them  to  have  taken  their  dinner  from  the  hands 
of  one  man,  a  stranger,  but  I  do  say  that  there 
should  have  been  nothing  in  their  spirits  opposed 
to  all  this,  without  the  train-wreck. 

Again,  our  common  inheritance  to  need  ought 
to  have  taught  us  to  fondle  dearly  every  moment 
of  influence  for  the  good  of  our  fellow  men. 

"Who  that  has  read  James  Russell  Lowell's  won- 
derful interpretation  of  the  power  of  need  over 
the  heart  in  "The  Vision  of  SirLaunfal"  can  fail 
to  appreciate  more  than  ever  the  deep  lesson 
upon  the  power  of  common  need  in  Jesus'  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan.  How  single  and  alone, 
how  rich  and  independent,  how  haughty  and 
heartless,  how  priest-like  and  Levite-like  is  Sir 
Launf  ul  that  morning  as  the  leper  by  the  gate  re- 
quests an  alms. 

"This  man,  so  foul  and  bent  of  stature, 

Rasped  harshly  against  his  dainty  nature, 
And  seemed  the  one  blot  on  the  summer  morn, — 
So  he  tossed  him  a  piece  of  gold  in  scorn. 

The  leper  raised  not  the  gold  from  the  dust: 

Better  to  me  the  poor  man's  crust, 
Better  the  blessing  of  the  poor, 

Though  I  turn  me  empty  from  his  door; 
That  is  no  true  alms  which  the  hand  can  hold: 

He  gives  only  the  worthless  gold 


THE  COMMON  LOT  43 

Who  gives  from  a  sense  of  duty; 

But  he  who  gives  but  a  slender  might, 
And  gives  to  that  which  is  out  of  sight 

That  thread  of  the  all-sustaining  beauty 
Which  runs  through  all  and  doth  all  unite, — 

The  hand  can  not  clasp  the  whole  of  his  alms, 
The  heart  outstretches  its  eager  palms, 

For  a  god  goes  with  it  and  makes  it  store 
To  the  soul  that  was  starving  in  darkness  before." 

Time  and  circumstance  have  held  their  sway, 
and  now  Sir  Launf al  is  aged  and  poor.  His  search 
for  the  Holy  Grail  was  a  failure,  but  he  has  found 
a  heart  of  sympathy.  His  castle,  another  has 
taken  it,  but  his  soul — 

"Deep  in  his  soul  the  sign  he  wore, 

The  badge  of  the  suffering  and  the  poor." 

The  leper  is   found  near  the  laughing  spring 
and  again  requests    an   alms.     Now  Sir  Launf  al 
says, 
*'l  behold  in  thee  an  image  of  him  who  died  on  the  tree." 

*  *  *  *  •55-  *  * 

"He  parted  in  twain  his  single  crust, 

TIg  broke  the  ice  on  the  streamlet's  brink, 
And  gave  the  leper  to  eat  and  drink. " 
*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

*'The  voice  that  was  softer  than  silence  said, 

Lo  it  is  I,  be  not  afraid! 
In  many  climes,  without  avail, 

Thou  hast  spent  thy  life  for  the  Holy  Grail; 
Behold,  it  is  here, — this  cup  which  thou 

Didst  fill  at  the  streamlet  for  me  but  now; 


44  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

This  crust  is  my  body  broken  for  thee, 

This  water  bis  blood  that  died  on  the  tree; 
The  Holy  Supper  is  kept  indeed, 

In  wbatso  we  share  with  another's  need; 
Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 

For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare; 
Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three. 

Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  me." 

Common  need  did  it. 

We  may  not  slight  the  sick  to-day,  our  need 
may  be  as  his  to-morrow.  The  poor,  we  may  not 
turn  them  empty  away  to-day,  our  own  need  may 
beseech  for  a  true  friend  to-morrow.  Yea,  and 
in  the  presence  of  all  the  contrast  between  the 
blessed  ideal  and  our  poor  present  experience 
may  we  not  well  say,  My  needs  to-day  bring 
into  full  life  a  kindred  feeling  with  all  the  needy 
race. 

So  now  here  is  the  question.  Will  you  step 
out  of  the  Cain-life  into  the  Christ-life?  Will 
you  out  of  the  love  of  God  serve  his  creatures 
and  your  brethren?  Thus  be  the  channel  through 
which  the  Lord  of  Life  and  Love  may  make  his 
bounties  the  common  lot  of  the  multitude. 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE. 


What  Think  Ye  of  Christ  ? 

Pharisees!  with  what  have  you  to  reproach  Jesus? 

"He  eateth  with  publicans  and  sinners." 

"Is  this  all?" 

"Yes." 

Pilate,  what  is  your  opinion? 

"I  find  no  fault  in  this  man." 

And  you,  Judas,  who  have  sold  your  Master  for  silver; 
have  you  some  fearful  charge  to  hurl  against  him? 

"  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  the  innocent 
blood." 

And  you,  centurion  and  soldiers  who  led  him  to  the 
cross,  what  have  you  to  say  against  him? 

"  Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God."    Matt,  xxvii:  54. 

And  you,  demons? 

"He  is  the  Son  of  God." 

John  Baptist,  what  think  you  of  Christ? 

"Behold  the  Lamb  of  God." 

And  you,  John? 

"  He  is  the  bright  and  morning  star." 

Peter,  what  say  you  of  your  Master? 

"  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

Paul,  you  have  persecuted  him;  what  testify  you  of 
him? 

"  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus,  my  Lord." 

Angels  of  heaven,  what  think  ye  of  Jesus? 

"Unto  you  is  born  a  Saviour,  which  is  Christ  the 
Lord." 

And  thou.  Father  in  heaven,  who  knowest  all  things? 

"  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

Beloved  reader,  what  think  you  of  Christ? 

— La  Luz  (Madrid),  quoted  in  El  Abogado  Christiano 
lllustrado  (Mexico)  and  Missionary  Review  of  the  World 
(New  York). 


THE  CHRIST   MIRACLE. 

HThe  greatest  miracle  of  all  the  ages  is  Jesus 
■^  Christ  himself.  Every  miracle  which  Jesus 
performed  gives  evidence  of  being  intended  as  a 
means  of  opening  up  the  soul-vision  of  humanity 
that  we  might  recognize  him  as  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  Not  the  turning 
of  the  water  into  wine,  not  the  casting  out  of 
devils,  and  not  the  raising  of  the  dead,  but  Jesus 
Christ  himself  is  the  miracle  of  miracles.  All 
other  marvels  at  best  are  incidental  to  this,  and 
I  question  if  any  man  can  calmly,  quietly  and 
without  bias  sit  down  and  consider  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  relation  to  history  and  to  humanity,  and  to 
his  own  claims,  without  being  convinced  of  the 
miracle  of  the  very  existence  of  one  born  among 
humanity  such  as  Jesus  the  Man  of  Galilee. 

In  a  recent  article  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
Mr.  Gladstone  says: 

"  I  do  not  know  on  earth  a  more  blessed  sub- 
ject for  contemplation  than  that  which  I  should 
describe  as  follows:  There  are,  it  may  be,  upon 
earth  four  hundred  and  fifty  million  professing 
Christians.  There  is  no  longer  one  fold  under 
one  visible  Shepherd,  and  the  majority  of  Christ- 


48  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ians  (such  as  I  take  it  now  to  be,  though  the 
minority  is  a  large  one)  is  content  with  its  one 
Shepherd  in  heaven  and  with  the  other  provisions 
he  has  made  on  earth.  His  flock  is  broken  up 
into  scores — it  may  be  hundreds — of  sections. 
These  sections  are  not  at  peace  but  at  war.  But 
with  all  this  segregation,  and  not  only  division 
but  conflict,  of  minds  and  interests,  the  answer 
given  by  the  four  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  or 
by  those  who  are  best  entitled  to  speak  for 
them,  to  the  question,  'What  is  the  G-ospel?'  is 
still  the  same.  With  conceptions  so  slight  that 
we  may  justly  set  them  out  of  the  reckoning,  the 
reply  is  still  the  same  as  it  was  in  the  apostolic 
age — the  central  truth  of  the  Gospel  lies  in  the 
trinity  and  tLe  incarnation,  in  the  God  that 
made  us  and  the  Saviour  that  redeemed  us. 
When  I  consider  what  human  nature  and  human 
history  have  been,  and  how  feeble  is  the  spirit  in 
its  warfare  with  the  flesh,  I  bow  my  head  in 
amazement  before  this  mighty  moral  miracle, 
this  marvelous  occurrence  evolved  from  the  very 
heart  of  discord." 

Napoleon,  astounded  at  the  prevailing  interest 
of  humanity  in  Jesus,  exclaims,  ' '  Caesar  is  dead 
and  forgotten,  Romulus  is  dead  and  forgotten, 
Alexander  is  dead  and  forgotten,  I  shall  soon 
be  dead  and  forgotten,  but  this  man  Jesus 
the  longer  he  is   dead    the   more  the   people  will 


THE   CHRIST  MIRACLE  49 

run  after  him.  I  tell  you  I  know  man.  I  have  mar- 
shalled man  on  many  a  battlefield,  but  Jesus  Christ 
is  more  than  man."  Why,  here  is  an  unanswer- 
able miracle.  Jesus  Christ  born  amid  most  humble 
surroundings,  the  poor  man  of  Nazareth,  his 
poverty  can  not  well  be  doubted.  He  said,  "  The 
foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have 
nests  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay 
his  head."  He  sent  his  disciples  to  procure  the 
money  for  tribute  from  the  mouth  of  a  fish.  He 
commended  Mary  his  mother  to  John  in  the  death 
hour,  Joseph  of  Arimath^a  characterized  as  a  rich 
man  provided  the  tomb  for  his  body,  and  he  con- 
demned all  selfish  hoarding  of  goods.  Four  thous- 
and men  besides  women  and  children  remain  with 
him  in  the  solitude  for  three  days  hungry,  then 
he  calls  his  disciples  unto  him  saying,  ' '  I  have 
compassion  on  the  multitude  because  they  con- 
tinue with  me  now  three  days  and  have  nothing 
to  eat  and  I  would  not  send  them  away  fasting 
lest  haply  they  faint  in  the  way."  It  is  true  he 
wore  a  seamless  robe,  probably  a  present  from 
some  interested  follower.  It  is  true  there  was  a 
purse  held  in  the  apostolic  company,  but  there 
was  never  sufficient  money  in  it  to  make  it  a 
matter  worth  the  record  that  any  was  left  over 
on  any  occasion,  including  the  occasion  of  the 
betrayal  of  Jesus  by  Judas.  Jesus  Christ  stood 
in  a  wheat  field  and  shelled  his   dinner,  probably 


50  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

because  no  one  had  invited  him  out.  It  is  a  phe- 
nomenon to  read  of  him  riding  even  when  he  had 
the  use  of  a  borrowed  boat  or  a  borrowed  beast  of 
burden,  and  promptly  after  his  resurrection  finding 
some  of  his  disciples  fishing  with  sad  hearts, 
he  says,  "Children,  have  you  any  meat?  "  and 
after  directing  them  to  the  source  of  supplies 
says  to  them,  "Come  and  break  your  fast." 
Evidently  Jesus  Christ  was  a  poor  man.  He  who 
said,  "  Gro  tell  John  that  the  poor  have  the  gos- 
pel preached  unto  them,"  "Blessed  are  ye  poor, 
for  yours  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  knew  what 
it  was  to  experience  what  the  poor  man  does, 
which  must  have  appeared  quite  a  new  and  as- 
tonishing fact  to  the  formal  Jews  of  that  day. 
His  hands  were  empty  that  he  might  fill  them  with 
gifts  of  grace  for  you  and  me,  his  hands  were 
bare  that  he  might  share  the  feeling  of  the  blasts 
with  you   and  me. 

"  Nay,  and  he  ate  our  meats, 
And  drank  our  drinks,  and  wore  tlie  dress  we  wore; 
And  his  hair  fluttered  in  the  breeze  which  stirred 
Peter's  and  John's  and  mine." 

Yet  this  poor  man  has  out-lived  all  millionaires 
and  all  castled  lords  unto  this  present  day. 
Croesus.  Who  knows  about  Croesus?  And  how 
much  is  known?  What  children  mention  his 
name?  What  public  addresses  or  lectures  are 
delivered  about  him?  Who  seeks  him  or  venerates 

V 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  51 

him?  Where  is  he?  The  castles  have  been  and 
are  gone  and  their  rich  inheritances  are  forgotten. 
But  Jesus  Christ,  the  homeless  teacher  of  men, 
lives  on  during  the  centuries  and  bids  fair  right 
speedily  to  outlive  all  the  wealth  and  possessions 
of  the  day  in  which  we  live. 

Look  at  the  miracle.  Jesus  Christ  was  never 
known  to  marshal  an  army.  There  is  not  a 
military  incident  in  his  programme  during  his 
stay  upon  earth.  He  did  not,  even  like  Chinese 
Gordon,  carry  a  cane,  as  he  led  forth  his  followers 
into  battle.  Bare-handed  he  gathered  the  com- 
panies together  with  the  charm  of  his  teaching 
and  of  his  love,  and  when  Peter  drew  forth  a 
sharp  instrument  of  some  kind  to  cut  off  the  ear 
of  Malchus,  he  quickly  healed  the  ear  and  said, 
< '  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the 
sword,  and  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world 
then  would  my  followers  fight,  but  now  is  my 
kingdom  not  from  hence."  When  men  smote 
him  he  rebuked  them  not;  when  men  derided  and 
spat  upon  him  he  antagonized  them  not.  There  he 
stood  the  Prince  of  Peace,  without  a  sword,  with- 
out an  arrow,  without  an  army,  without  what  na- 
tions would  call  a  battle;  yet  he  has  outlived  all 
the  generals  and  captains  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  and  Phenicia  and  Assyria  and  of  all  na- 
tions until  the  present  day,  and  continues  to  out- 
live them  as  the  days  come  and  go.     Stand  there 


53  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

in  Palestine  nineteen  hundred  years  ago  and  tell 
me  that  Jesus  Christ  will  outlive  Herod.  How  I 
might  laugh  you  to  scorn.  But  who  knows 
Herod  to-day?  And  who  does  not  know  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  marvelous  character  in  history  at 
least. 

Jesus  Christ  was  never  known  to  write  a  single 
book.  We  have  been  told  in  later  years  that  he 
may  have  at  least  dictated  one,  but  we  have  no 
sujfficient  proof  that  he  ever  did.  He  does  not 
represent  himself  as  a  writer.  The  four  Gospels 
seem  to  be  studied  epitomes  of  inspired  simplicity 
about  him.  Yet  he  has  outlived  all  authors,  prose 
and  poetic,  during  his  days  and  all  preceding  days, 
and  continues  to  outlive  all  authors  between  his 
day  and  the  present.  Very  ancient  books  there 
are,  revered  by  benighted  peoples,  but  Jesus  right 
surely  wins  his  way  among  these,  he  will  not  let 
them  alone,  they  can  not  let  him  alone ;  and  in  so- 
called  civilized  countries  you  will  find  ten  thou- 
sand little  boys  who  can  stand  up  upon  the  spur 
of  the  moment  and  tell  you  something  Jesus  said, 
while  perhaps  you  could  not  average  five  people 
in  a  company  of  ten  thousand  who  could  arise 
upon  the  spur  of  the  moment  and  quote  from 
Thales  or  Socrates  or  Plato  or  Aristotle  or 
Zenophon  or  Buddha  or  Pericles.  Much  has 
been  said  about  the  twenty-nine  autographs  of 
Christopher  Columbus,  not  including  some  mar- 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  53 

ginal  notes  upon  the  pages  of  books.  We  display- 
no  samples  of  the  handwriting  of  Jesus.  He  out- 
lives Columbus  without  that.  As  he  was  sword- 
less  so  he  is  penless,  and  he  outlives  the  author  as 
he  does  the  soldier. 

Jesus  Christ  was  never  known  to  see  a  steam 
engine  or  a  railway  train  or  electric  appliances 
for  the  transit  of  messages  or  of  people  or  for 
lighting  up  the  cities,  yet  he  has  outlived  the 
discoveries  and  explorations  of  all  the  so-called 
new  countries  from  that  day  to  this;  the  steam- 
ships and  railway,  telephone,  the  telautograph, 
the  lineotype,  all  these  and  many  more  modern 
wonders.  Indeed,  these  very  inventions  are  brought 
into  requisition  to  carry  forth  his  plain  teachings, 
and  to  emphasize  his  deathless  character  upon 
the  attention  of  the  peoples.  Into  each  opening 
continent  and  island  of  the  sea;  he  presses  his 
way  while  the  waiting  people  trust  him  and  are 
glad. 

Jesus  Christ  has  a  grip  upon  the  heart  of  uni- 
versal mankind  and  it  will  not  let  go.  The  great, 
tender  and  consciously  mighty  interest  which  he 
showed  (and  is  still  showing)  has  captured  the 
race.  How  rich  he  might  have  become  had  he 
charged  but  a  penny  apiece  of  the  people  who 
flocked  to  hear  him  or  came  for  his  help.  He 
charged  nothing,  he  kept  giving.  He  is  the  hope 
of  the  peoples.     The  discontented  mob  of  laborers 


54  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

in  Trafalgar  Square  in  London,  while  being  dis- 
persed by  the  police,  called  out  with  enthusiasm, 
"Three  cheers  for  Jesus  Christ."  Contend  and 
oppose  as  you  may,  buried  deep  in  the  hearts  of 
the  children  of  men  is  the  conviction  that  Jesus 
is  the  long-sought  hope.  And  when  once  men 
yield  their  wills  to  this  ray  of  Christ's  own  light 
shining  within  them,  they  will  plight  their  alle- 
giance to  him,  fearless  of  life  or  death. 

Jesus  Christ  could  not  have  been  an  impostor. 
Had  he  been  an  impostor,  how  quickly  he  would 
have  sought  either  the  favor  of  the  Roman  Gov- 
ernment or  of  the  Jewish  church.  He  sought 
neither.  As  to  the  government  he  said,  <■ '  The 
kings  of  this  world  exercise  lordship  over  you, 
and  you  count  them  benefactors  who  exercise  lord- 
ship over  you;  but  it  shall  not  be  so  among  you, 
but  he  that  would  be  great  among  you  shall  be 
your  servant."  Did  they  not  accuse  him  of  being 
an  antagonist  to  Caesar?  As  for  the  pharisaical 
church  people  of  his  day,  he  said  of  them:  For 
a  pretense  you  make  long  prayers,  you  tithe  mint 
and  anise  and  cummin,  but  you  forget  to  practice 
mercy  and  truth.  He  conflicted  with  their  ideas 
of  the  Sabbath,  he  conflicted  with  their  ideas  of 
the  Old  Testament  prophecies,  and  for  envy  the 
chief  priests  delivered  him  up.  There  he  stood, 
no  government,  no  church,  no  home,  no  following, 
no  wealth,  no  fame,  doubted  and  feared,  scorned 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  55 

and  despised,  yet  he  has  revolutionized  the  con- 
victions of  governments   and  the  convictions   of 
churches   until  they  tremble    with    fear  for   the 
future  of  either  as   they  mark   the  contrast  be- 
tween the  teachings  he  gave  and  their  conditions. 
Whose  favor  did  he  seek?     You  can  not  imagine 
from  any  authentic  record  of  Jesus  that  he  cajoled 
with  anybody.     He  came  to  save  and  he  kept  at 
that  business.     No   sign   of  a  plot,    no   hint  at 
scheming,  openly,  out  and  out,  yet  mercifully  he 
did  the  deeds,  he  said  the  sayings.     No  impostor! 
Again,  Jesus  Christ  could  not  have  been  self- 
deceived.     How  conscious  of  his  position  he  ap- 
peared,  how  authoritative  and  calm,  how  he  fits 
exactly  into   prophecy  at  least   2,000  years  old, 
how  at  shorter  range  by  some  1,400  years  Isaiah 
has  told  about  the  very  garments  he  would  wear 
and  the  sepulcher  into  which  his  body  should  be 
laid.     So  commonly  do  the  occurrences  of  his  life 
fit  into  prophecy  that  Matthew  in  writing  the  rec- 
ord refers  twenty-six  times  at  least  to  prophetic 
utterances.       John     says,     after    quoting    from 
Isaiah,  "These  things  said  Isaiah  because  he  saw 
his  glory  and  he  spoke  of  him."     How  exactly  he 
fitted  into   his    own    statements    concerning  his 
death  and  his  resurrection  and  concerning   the 
abiding  security  of  the  truths  he  taught  and  upon 
which  we  now  feed.      Look  these  all  over,  elabor- 
ate the  line   of    suggestions  for  yourselves,  and 


56  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

tell  me  was  there  ever  recorded  any  such  miracle 
as  this.  Hear  him,  "I  came  from  above."  His 
name  is  called  Immanuel.  God  with  us.  He 
says,  "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  In  turn  the  chief  priests  scorned  and 
then  feared  him,  saying,  ' '  The  people  are  gone 
after  hirti." 

Pliny,  the  younger,  when  he  finds  that  the 
magistrates  are  bringing  Christians  to  trial  for 
their  religion,  writes  to  the  Emperor  for  advice. 
He  knows  not  their  crimes  nor  the  punishment 
due  them.  He  has  not  attended  any  of  the  trials. 
Shall  he  make  any  distinction  between  the  young 
and  the  old,  the  tender  and  the  robust?  Shall  he 
release  any  that  repent  or  recant  ?  Here  is  his 
letter,  written  probably  in  the  year  112. 

*'My  method  has  been  this:  I  asked  those 
brought  before  me  whether  they  were  Christians. 
If  they  confessed,  I  asked  them  twice  afresh,  with 
a  threat  of  capital  punishment.  If  they  persisted 
obstinately,  I  ordered  them  to  be  executed,  for  I 
had  no  doubt  that  whatever  the  nature  of  their 
religion,  a  loillful  and  sullen  inflexibility  deserved 
punishment.  Some  that  were  infected  with  the 
madness,  being  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  Eo- 
man  citizens,  I  reserved  to  be  sent  to  Eome  to  be 
referred  to  your  tribunal.  As  information  poured 
in  that  they  were  encouraged,  more  cases  oc- 
curred.    A  list  of  names  was  sent  by  an  imJc7iovm 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  57 

accuser,  but  some  of  the  accused  denied  that  they 
were  or  ever  had  been  Christians.  They  repeated 
after  me  an  invocation  of  the  gods  and  of  your 
image.  They  performed  sacred  rites  with  wine 
and  frankincense,  and  reviled  Christ,  none  of 
which  things,  I  am  told,  a  real  Christian  would 
ever  be  compelled  to  do.  Therefore,  I  dismissed 
them.  Others,  named  by  an  informer,  first  con- 
fessed and  then  denied  it,  and  declared  that  they 
had  forsaken  that  error  three  or  four  years,  some 
even  twenty  years  ago.  *  *  *  And  this  was 
the  account  which  they  gave  of  the  nature  of  the 
religion  they  once  professed,  whether  it  deserves 
the  name  of  crime  or  error:  That  they  were  ac- 
customed to  meet  on  a  stated  day,  before  sunrise, 
and  to  repeat  among  themselves  a  hymn  to  Christ 
as  to  a  god,  and  to  bind  themselves  as  with  an 
oath  not  to  commit  any  wickedness,  not  to  be 
guilty  of  theft,  robbery,  or  adultery,  never  to 
break  a  promise  or  withhold  a  pledge ;  after  which 
it  was  their  custom  to  separate,  and  meet  again 
at  a  promiscuous  meal  (doubtless  the  love-feast 
connected  with  the  Lord's  Supper).  From  this 
last  they  desisted  after  I  published  my  edict  ac- 
cording to  your  orders  and  forbade  any  secret 
societies  of  that  sort.  To  come  at  the  truth,  I 
thought  it  necessary  to  put  to  the  torture  two 
women  said  to  be  deaconesses.  But  I  could  gather 
nothing  except  a  depraved  and  excessive  super- 


58  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

stition.  Deferring  further  investigation,  I  re- 
solved to  consult  you,  for  the  number  of  culprits 
is  so  great  as  to  demand  serious  consideration. 
Informers  lodge  complaints  against  a  multitude  of 
every  age  and  of  both  sexes.  More  still  may  be 
impeached.  The  contagion  of  this  superstition 
has  spread  through  cities  and  milages^  and  even 
reached  farm-houses.  Yet  I  think  it  may  be 
checked. " 

Even  these  very  words  of  Pliny  sound  like  a 
partial  report  of  which  Jesus'  own  words  were  a 
prophecy  as  he  referred  to  coming  trials  of  his 
people,  including  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
saying,  "  Then  shall  they  deliver  you  up  to  be 
afflicted  and  shall  kill  you  and  ye  shall  be  hated 
of  all  nations  for  my  name's  sake,  and  then  shall 
many  be  offended  and  shall  betray  one  another." 
Surely  he  who  could  say,  ' '  before  Abraham  was  I 
am,"  is  also  saying  "when  Nero  is  I  am."  Do 
you  notice  that  phrase  in  Pliny's  letter,  "yet  I 
think  it  may  be  checked."  Why,  here  is  the  tes- 
timony of  a  heathen  writing  to  a  heathen,  a 
Roman  writing  to  a  Roman,  a  government  official 
writing  to  an  Emperor.  Jesus  Christ  has  been 
crucified;  he  thinks  the  plan  may  be  checked. 
We  know  it  can  not  be  checked.  The  heathen 
coloring  of  the  letter  is  apparent.  A  few  sen- 
tences in  his  letter  reveal  something  wonderfully 
suggestive  about  the  spirit  or  the  timber  of  the 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  59 

early  followers  of  Christ.  And  his  reference  to 
those  who  withdrew  their  allegiance  to  Jesus  is  no 
more  striking  than  the  reference  to  such  occur- 
rences in  the  Gospel  of  John  and  the  Epistles  of 
Paul,  or  the  records  of  the  fallen  as  the  result  of 
selfishness  in  the  day  in  which  we  live. 
Evidently  they  did  not  all  recant,  and  evidently 
recanting  was  becoming  uncommon.  Jesus  Christ 
was  not  self-deceived. 

We  need  not  consider  it  so  bewildering  that 
Jesus  Christ  should  have  been  born  of  a  woman 
who  was  espoused,  not  married,  to  Joseph,  a  plain 
carpenter.  Without  doubt  this  fact  suggests  a 
great  mystery,  yet  all  life  is  a  mystery.  Strange, 
keen,  coy  life;  who  can  tell  what  it  is  ?  But 
there  is  a  sweetness  to  the  mystery  like  the 
sweetness  in  the  mystery  of  music  or  of  affection ; 
we  love  their  very  mysteries.  They  charm  us. 
So  to  say  the  least  of  it  the  mystery  here  is  win- 
some. Look  back  to  that  mother  who  bore  you, 
and  as  you  think  it  over  you  say,  ' '  Born  of  her,  yet 
an  individual."  We  are  ourselves.  We  are  not 
her.  And  since  the  great  Creator  has  made  the 
law  by  which  the  generations  of  man  are  born  and 
succeed  each  other — a  law  so  mysterious,  is  it  to 
be  doubted  that  by  that  same  law  he  should  come 
among  us  living  as  a  man?  You  will  find  be- 
wildering and  tormenting  mysteries  if  you  try  to 


60  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

follow  out  the  line  of  accounting  for  Jesus  Christ 
by  any  other  method. 

Behold  him  stand  the  Son  of  man,  the  Son  of 
God !  He  came  to  show  us  what  it  is  to  be  a  man, 
and  he  came  to  teach  us  what  it  is  to  be  God.  He 
is  in  our  way  before  us  as  the  very  path  to  vic- 
tory ;  we  can  not  get  around  him,  we  can  not  get 
over  him,  we  can  not  get  under  him,  he  is  risen 
from  the  dead,  he  will  not  die.  Behold  he  is  alive 
forevermore.  No  stain  has  been  upon  his  lips. 
No  lust  was  seen  in  his  eye.  No  double-dealing 
in  his  conduct.  He  came  from  above.  He  is 
above  all.  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
him.  The  Germans  have  their  Von  Moltke  and 
their  Bismarck,  the  Hungarians  have  their  Come- 
nius,  the  Italians  Garibaldi,  the  English  their 
Wellington,  and  the  Americans  their  Washington 
and  their  Grant;  but  the  Germans,  the  Hungar- 
ians, the  Italians,  the  English,  the  Americans 
and  the  nations  of  civilization  hold  to  this  one  Je- 
sus Christ.  And  how  quickly  the  heathen  rushes 
to  pay  his  homage  to  him.  If  the  Jew  had  been 
as  prompt  as  the  heathen,  the  nations  of  the  world 
might  have  been  in  the  full  glory  of  the  era  of 
his  peace  to-day.  Does  he  not  charm  your  soul  ? 
And  it  is  not  only  what  we  can  say  of  Christ  as  a 
person  or  as  a  character  ranging  among  characters, 
but  O,  what  language  of  peace  is  heard  upon  the 
lips  of  those  who  are  acquainted  with  him.    They 


THE  CHRIST  MIRACLE  61 

call  him  Saviour.  They  call  him  Friend,  Blessed 
Redeemer,  the  Best  Friend,  Our  Lord  and  All  in 
All.  Nor  is  it  so  much  a  question  of  whether  we 
shall  know  the  actual  things  he  said,  though  this 
is  valuable,  but  it  is  that  we  shall  know  him,  that 
we  shall  get  into  the  sweep  of  his  character  and 
be  like  him.  Like  some  little  child  in  a  boat 
caught  in  the  current  of  a  deep,  swift,  flowing 
river,  borne  on  with  the  Christ-spirit. 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST. 


"  Can  Satan  cause  the  truth  of  God  to  fail,  or  his  prom- 
ises to  be  of  none  effect  ?  If  not,  the  time  will  come 
when  Christianity  will  prevail  over  all,  and  cover  the 
earth.  Let  us  stand  a  little,  and  survey  this  strange 
sight,  a  Christian  World.  Where,  I  pray,  do  the  Christ- 
ians live  ?  Which  is  the  country,  the  inhabitants 
whereof  are  all  thus  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Are 
all  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul  ?  Can  not  suffer  one 
among  them  to  lack  anything,  but  continually  give  to 
every  man  as  he  hath  need  ?  Who,  one  and  all,  have 
the  love  of  God  filling  their  hearts,  and  constraining 
them  to  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves  ?  Who  have 
all  "put  on  bowels  of  mercy,  humbleness  of  mind,  gen- 
tleness, long  suffering?"  Who  offend  not  in  any  kind, 
either  by  word  or  deed,  against  justice,  mercy  or  truth; 
but  in  every  point  do  unto  all  men  as  they  would  these 
should  do  unto  them?  With  what  propriety  can  we 
term  any  a  Christian  country  which  does  not  answer 
this  description  ?  Why,  then,  let  us  confess  we  have 
never  yet  seen  a  Christian  country  upon  earth." 

John  Wesley. 

The  grace  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you.  Rom- 
ans xvi:20. 

"A  sort  of  affectation  prevents  some  Christians  from 
treating  religion  as  if  its  sphere  lay  among  the  common 
places  of  daily  life.  It  is  to  them  transcendental  and 
dreamy;  rather  a  creation  of  pious  fiction  than  a  matter 
of  fact.  They  believe  in  God,  after  a  fashion,  for  things 
spiritual,  and  for  the  life  which  is  to  be;  but  they  totally 
forget  that  true  godliness  hath  the  promise  of  the  life 
which  now  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come.  To 
them  it  would  seem  almost  a  profanation  to  pray  about 
the  small  matters  of  which  daily  life  is  made  up.  Per- 
haps they  will  be  startled  if  I  venture  to  suggest  that 
this  should  make  them  question  the  reality  of  their 
faith.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST. 

ly'iNG,  Prince,  Master,  Lord — what  authority 
^^  dwells  in  these  titles.  The  real  meaning  of 
that  word  '  'Lord  "  if  transferred  to  an  ocean  steam- 
ship would  render  it  Master,  or  if  transferred  to 
a  large  business  block  iinder  construction  would 
render  it  Foreman,  or  if  to  a  railroad.  Superin- 
tendent. Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  then  is  our 
Lord.  He  came  asking  for  no  pitying  regard,  he 
came  to  manage. 

Eight  here  lurks  the  infidelity  which  has  slyly 
gained  a  place  in  the  very  temple  of  the  King. 
It  says  Christ  is  the  great  Friend,  the  wonderful 
Saviour,  but  it  refuses  to  say  with  Paul,  "He  is 
the  wisdom  of  God."  It  will  welcome  the  Christ- 
ian religion  as  a  comfortable  conveyance  to  a 
heaven  of  rest,  but  it  objects  to  the  Christian  re- 
ligion as  the  regulating  authority  of  God  for  this 
earth. 

It  is  willing  to  help  brace  up  the  church,  but  it 
refuses  to  usher  in  the  Kingdom  which  Christ  so 
emphatically  said  was  at  hand,  not  finding  in  the 
church  Christ's  bride  who  shall  be  the  mother  of 
the  adopted  family  gathered  from  the  wayward 
everywhere. 


66  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

A  modern  Matthew  might  well  be  welcomed 
into  the  field  who  would  express  anew  for  us  the 
thought  of  the  Old  Testament  country  Evange- 
list, Micah,  "Out  of  thee  (Bethlehem)  shall  come 
a  Governor  which  shall  be  Shepherd  of  my  people 
Israel."  Matt.  ii:6,  E.  V.  When  we  are  willing 
to  apply  the  principles  of  Jesus  to  political  affairs 
we  will  be  ready  for  the  new  title  Shepherd- 
Governor.  Then  shall  we  close  up  the  chasm 
between  the  secular  and  the  sacred;  and  the 
Protestant  Eef ormation  shall  find  its  fuller  reform. 
Christ  did  not  come  to  be  the  spectacle  of  the 
world.  He  came  to  be  its  Saviour.  Christ  is  an 
infinite  expression  of  holy  help.  He  is  not  a 
Shepherd  and  a  Governor,  he  is  the  Shepherd- 
Governor.  He  is  not  only  a  King  and  a  Saviour, 
he  is  the  Saving  King  and  the  Kingly  Saviour. 
He  is  one  present,  pure,  saving  Lord. 

1.  He  is  the  Lord  of  business  affairs.  We 
say  this  part  of  life  is  business  and  that  part  of 
life  is  religion ;  business  is  business  and  religion  is 
religion,  and  you  can  not  mix  business  and  relig- 
ion. To  be  sure  you  can  not  mix  business  and 
religion  unless  you  have  the  religion  to  mix.  But 
business  is  Christianity  and  Christianity  is  busi- 
ness. Christ  came  to  regulate  the  transactions 
in  our  business  affairs  so  that  a  man  can  drop 
dead  in  any  office  where  legitimate  business  is 
employing  his  time,  saying,  I  do  this  in  the  name 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  67 

of  the  Lord  Jesus.  What  is  a  man's  business  but 
the  method  by  which  he  finds  holy  employment 
and  holy  defense  against  the  suffering  and  the 
needs  of  those  intrusted  to  him?  Shall  a  man  be 
an  appendix  to  a  plow,  or  a  yard-stick,  or  a  rail- 
road, or  an  ore-crusher  ?  God  made  him  to  be  a 
king,  and  gave  him  his  commission  to  subdue  the 
earth  and  have  dominion.  And  one  of  the  sad- 
dest exhibitions  of  the  weakness  introduced  into 
his  life  by  sin  is  that  this  king  will  run  from  a 
hornet.  The  crowding  of  Jesus  out  of  business, 
where  man  gets  his  hardest  knocks,  and  either 
loses  or  finds  his  manhood,  has  brought  us  a  ter- 
rible greed  for  gold  and  a  kind  of  hardness  and 
obtuseness,  which  has  made  the  business  life  of 
many  a  sullen  treadmill  of  remorse.  Our  fathers 
and  mothers  used  to  sing, 

'*  When  I  can  read  my   title  clear  to  mansions  in   the 

skies, 
I'll  bid  farewell  to  every  fear,  and  wipe  my  weeping 

eyes." 
But  the  worldly  business  men  of  to-day  would 
seem  to  sing: 
"  When  I  can  sing  my  title  clear  to  mansions  on  the 

avenue, 
I'll  bid  farewell  to  every  fear,  and  the  devil  take  you." 

We  can  hardly  endure  calla  lilies;  we  want 
celery  so  we  can  eat  it.  Lambs  skipping  on  the 
hillside  lose  their  poetic  significance;  we  want 


68  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

mutton.  We  are  like  the  old  man  whose  wife 
came  home  from  church,  and  when  he  asked  her 
what  the  preaching  was  about,  she  said :  ' '  He 
preached  about  Joseph  going  down  into  Egypt 
to  buy  corn,"  whereupon  the  old  man  questioned, 
' '  Did  he  say  what  corn  is  worth  down  there  now?" 
We  are  like  the  woman  who  rushed  out  of  a  mil- 
liner's store  to  conduct  a  missionary  meeting,  and 
upon  reaching  the  platform  said,  ' '  Let  us  rise  and 
sing  hymn  two  dollars  and  a  half."  Oh,  brothers. 
let  Christ  into  your  business.  And  let  him  not 
only  be  a  comforter;  let  the  spirit  of  Christ  reg- 
ulate the  daily  struggle  and  put  it  into  harmony. 
Be  like  the  London  tinker  who  said  he  served 
God  for  a  business  and  mended  pans  for  expenses. 
If  your  business  is  not  right,  righten  it  or  leave  it. 

If  your  business  is  a  righteous  business,  make 
it  your  throne,  where  Christ  places  you. 

Let  me  commend  to  you  the  following  words  of 
Mary  A.  Lathbury: 

"  Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  to-morrow, 
What  are  you  weaving,  labor  and  sorrow  ? 

Look  at  your  looms  again;  faster  and  faster 
Fly  the  great  shuttles  prepared  by  the  Master; 

Life's  in  the  loom,  room'for  it — room! 

Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  to-morrow, 
Lighten  the  labor  and  sweeten  the  sorrow; 

Now,  while  the  shuttles  fly  faster  and  faster. 
Up  and  be  at  it — at  work  with  the  Master. 

He  stands  at  your  loom,  room  for  him — room! 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST 


Children  of  yesterday,  heirs  of  to-morrow, 
Look  at  your  fabric  of  labor  and  sorrow. 

Seamy  and  dark  with  despair  and  disaster. 
Turn  it,  and  lo!  The  design  of  the  Master! 

The  Lord's  at  the'^loom,  room  for  him — room!  " 

A  poor  seamstress,  who  had  several  children  to 
support,  was  asked  by  a  Christian  woman  how  she 
prospered.  The  seamstress  replied,  "O,  thank 
you;  I  am  rich  in  work."  When  work  becomes 
worship,  it  will  be  considered  riches  indeed. 
What  a  covetable  opportunity  the  business  man 
has  to-day  of  proving  to  the  world  that  mastery 
of  Christ  without  which  industrial  harmony  never 
can  be  realized. 

When  the  blacksmith  was  cautioned  by  the 
minister  to  remember  as  he  shod  the  horse  that 
the  Lord  made  the  animal,  he  replied,  ' '  I  will  do 
better  than  that,  I  will  remember  that  the  Lord 
is  making  this  nail." 

A  middle-aged  gentleman  who  carried  a  sunny 
face  arose  recently  in  a  camp  meeting  and  said, 
* '  I  am  sometimes  taken  for  a  minister  and  the 
brethren  want  to  know  where  my  '  charge '  is ;  I 
tell  them  down  on  the  corner  of  Grand  avenue 
and  Water  street  in  my  home  city.  I  operate  a 
lumber  yard  for  the  Lord  there." 

Just  notice  how  in  those  sayings  on  the  moun- 
tain-side Christ  strikes  a  comparison  between  man 
and  the  animals.     On  other  occasions  he  answers 


70  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  Jews  by  expressing  the  very  same  idea  when  he 
says,  for  instance, ' '  How  much  better  is  a  man  than 
a  sheep  ?  "  Here  in  these  sayings  on  the  mountain- 
side he  makes  the  comparison  very  definite  and 
then  clearly  draws  the  lesson.  Harken.  ' '  Be- 
hold the  birds  of  the  heaven  that  they  sow  not, 
neither  do  they  reap  nor  gather  into  barns,  and 
your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them,  are  not  ye 
of  much  more  value  than  they."  The  question 
resolves  itself  into  this,  if  God  provides  grass  for 
the  sheep's  food,  water  for  its  drink  and  wool  for 
its  back,  seeds  and  worms  and  insects  for  the 
birds  and  feathers  for  their  covering,  nothing 
can  prevent  him  from  providing  all  we  need  for 
our  food  and  clothing  but  our  disloyalty,  and  it 
will  all  work  out  as  orderly  as  does  the  provision 
for  the  sheep  and  for  the  bird.  People  who  are 
disloyal  have  much  of  these  things,  wretched 
blasphemers  fare  sumptuously  every  day.  Shall 
not  you  and  I  have  the  necessities  ?  O,  worry- 
ing soul,  seek  first  the  Kingdom.  There  are 
multitudes  of  people  who  believe  in  God  for  al- 
most everything  else  but  for  these  common  every- 
day provisions.  No  wonder  Jesus  said  right 
here,  "  O,  ye  of  little  faith!  "  We  are  not  suffer- 
ing so  much  from  infidelity  about  ' '  the  THiiitij  "  as 
infidelity  about  bread  and  butter. 

We  divide  between  what  we  call  the  sacred  and 
the  secular,   but  with  God  all  is  sacred.      This 

s 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  71 

practice  of  laying  one  set  of  actions  upon  one  side 
of  a  line  and  another  set  of  actions  upon  the 
other  side  of  the  line  and  calling  those  on  the  one 
side  sacred,  and  those  on  the  other  side  secular 
is  a  mistake  of  the  dark  ages.  The  monastic  idea 
is  not  actually  dead  yet.  I  had  a  friend  who 
talked  about  dim,  7'eligious  light.  What  a  use  of 
the  word  "religious."  That  very  class  of  con- 
ceptions has  given  us  this  thing  sacred  and  that 
thing  secular.  Not  that  one  thing  or  one  day 
may  not  be  considered  more  vastly  sacred  than 
another,  but  we  are  living  in  that  order  of  gov- 
ernment which  calls  upon  us  to  eat  or  drink  or 
do  whatsoever  we  do  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  to  live  a  life  rather  than  allot  sections  of  a 
life,  and  in  all  things  by  prayer  and  supplication 
with  thanksgiving  to  let  our  requests  be  made 
known  unto  God.  Let  us  again  call  to  mind 
that  when  Jesus  so  often  and  so  sweetly  called 
attention  to  the  care  of  our  "Father"  for  us  in 
those  sayings  on  the  mountain  plateau  he  spoke 
particularly  of  food  and  clothing.  And  of  these 
things,  food,  drink  and  clothing,  mark  you,  he 
said,  "Your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye 
have  need  of  all  these  things;"  and  it  was  of 
these  provisions,  things  we  handle,  taste  and 
wear,  things  we  soil  and  wear  out,  it  was  of  the 
supply  of  these  things  he  spoke,  when  he  said. 
Consider  the  lilies  how  they  grow."      Right 


72  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

here  the  awful  breech  is  caused  in  the  Christian 
church  of  our  day  by    the    infidelity   within  it 
with  which  men  are  bound  as  if  with  a  fetter. 
Perhaps  the  most  noticeable  need  of  our  day  is  a 
spirit  of  holiness  among  men  of  business.     The 
business  men  by  the-  hundred  show  their  wrong 
bent  in  life  not  so  much  by  violent  wickedness  as 
by  cowardly  infidelity.     And  when  I  say  infidel- 
ity I  do  not  mean  that  which  refuses   to  believe 
in  the  revelation  of  God,  or  allies  itself  to  atheism. 
I  mean  that  infidelity  which  does  not  reckon  God 
in  the  richness   of  his    promises    into  account. 
Thank  God  for  blessed  exceptions  to  the  startling 
general  order  of  business  affairs  the  country  over. 
That  general  order  will  never  cease  until  men 
cease  to  believe  that  going  to  church  is  sacred 
and  selling  cloth  secular.      In   its  proper  time 
and  proper  place  selling  cloth  is  as  sacred  as  sing- 
ing psalms,  or  ploughing  fields  as  sacred  as  pray- 
ing.    Do  I  hear  some  business  man  say  there  is 
the  point  exactly,  if  we  could  plough  the  fields  it 
would  be  another  question.     Our  fathers  ploughed 
fields  and  they  lived  righteously,  but  it  is  a  decid- 
edly different  thing  to  transact  business  upon  the 
vast  basis  of  affairs  where  we  operate  with  our 
new    inventions    and    enterprises  to-day.     Well 
then,  there  is  land  enough,  let  us  move  out  on  to 
the  farm.     We  may  better  live  there  than  wreck 
our  destiny  by  denying  Christ  or  selling  him  for 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  73 

gold.  Let  us  make  the  farm  our  ark  and  rush 
into  it,  taking  with  us  a  multitude.  Ah,  no,  we 
need  not  run  to  the  farm.  Stupid  infidelity !  As 
if  Christ  had  lost  the  kingdom  or  divided  it  with 
the  enemy.  We  know  that  those  plain  short 
statements  of  his  will  revolutionize  us — and  busi- 
ness customs  as  well.  "We  will  seek  first  his 
kingdom  (w^orld-wide,  present,  coming,  unfail- 
ing) and  his  righteousness;  food  and  clothing  are 
added  like  the  decoration  to  the  lily.  Let  us  be 
poor.  He  was.  Let  us  lose.  He  did.  Let  us 
die.  We  are  still  with  him.  Let  us  not  be 
anxious.     He  careth  for  us. 

2.  Christ  is  Lord  of  literature.  They  tell  us 
in  certain  quarters  that  they  don't  want  a  geog- 
raphy in  the  public  schools  which  teaches  that 
God  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  I  wonder 
that  they  do  not  take  the  bouquets  out,  for  fear 
the  children  might  think  that  the  Lord  made  the 
flowers.  I  wonder  that  they  do  not  put  board 
shutters  over  the  windows,  for  fear  the  children 
might  get  the  conviction  that  God  made  the  sun- 
light. I  am  glad  there  are  a  few  prominent  news- 
papers in  this  country  which  hold  some  things  of 
moral  significance  in  regard.  But  do  you  not 
know  of  the  low  penny-catching  tendency  to  crowd 
Christ  out  of  literature  which  will  yet  reach 
the  unborn  millions  of  girls  and  boys  in 
America    unless    the    conditions  are    changed  ? 


74  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

A  lot  of  publications  which  lay  before  the 
gaze  of  young  men  craven  pictures  of 
nudity  and  vileness  in  barber-shops  and 
other  places,  are  but  instances  of  another  vio- 
lent attempt  to  crowd  Christ  out.  There  is  no 
great  tone  of  sentiment  in  prose  and  poetry  in  all 
Christendom  to-day  which  is  not  traceable  to 
something  Jesus  said.  I  heard  Dr.  John  P.  New- 
man say  that  when  he  was  a  pastor  in  Washing- 
ton he  was  surprised  to  find,  when  called  to 
visit  sick  Congressmen,  that  so  many  of  them 
would  ask  for  the  New  Testament  to  be  gotten 
from  their  pockets  that  he  might  read  to  them 
from  it  during  his  visits.  Statesmen,  not  to  say 
orators  and  politicians,  reckon  the  standards  of 
their  public  addresses  largely  by  the  Scripture 
quotations  which  break  out  upon  them  like  fruit 
upon  a  tree.  Our  dearest  American  poets  have 
been  Christly  singers.  When  Christ  shall  be  truly 
recognized  as  master  of  the  thoughts  of  the  peo- 
ple we  will  not  be  surprised  to  hear  men  and 
women  say  that  they  have  been  called  of  Grod  to 
be  editors. 

3.  There  have  been  indications,  too,  of  an  at- 
tempt to  crowd  Christ  out  of  his  own  Church.  I 
would  not  speak  carelessly  or  thanklessly  of  that 
best  institution  of  earth  to-day,  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Church  was  God's  highway,  at  the 
entrance  of  which  I  found  Christ,  and  I  love  her 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  75 

virtues  very  dearly.  The  Church  is  not  made  yet. 
It  is  being  made.  And  I  love  her  so  dearly  that 
when  I  see  an  indication  of  a  defect  I  must  gent- 
ly point  it  out  just  as  I  would  seek  to  remedy 
some  defect  in  my  mother's  health.  The  Church 
has  strongly  verged  again  upon  the  brink  of  sell- 
ing out  to  all  kinds  of  formularies  and  customs 
and  trifling  entertainments,  in  the  place  of  truly 
enthroning  Christ.  They  tell  us  that  all  subjects 
of  general  interest  lead  up  to  Christ.  I  do  not 
deny  that  there  is  a  connection  between  all  sub- 
jects of  true  interest  and  Jesus  Christ.  But  the 
world  is  hungering  for  Christ  himself.  You 
might  take  me  to  the  Atlantic  cable  and  tell  me 
that  this  leads  up  to  Cyrus  W.  Field,  but  if  I  had 
known  nothing  about  Cyrus  W.  Field's  inventing 
the  cable,  could  I  possibly  find  out  about  Mr. 
Field  from  looking  at  that  guttapercha  and  wire? 
It  would  indeed  lead  up  to  Mr.  Field,  but  the 
elevator  is  invisible.  This  world  wants  Christ; 
the  personal  Christ,  the  living  Christ;  the  real 
saving,  abiding,  undying,  pulsing  Christ.  They 
tell  us  now  that  we  shall  presently  have  a  unity 
of  religions ;  that  we  shall  be  called  upon  to  min- 
gle a  little  Mohammedanism  and  Buddhism  and 
Brahmanism  and  Shintuism,  with  a  little  Christi- 
anity, and  that  in  the  coming  days  we  shall  have 
a  broad,  great  religion. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  an   old  minister  presented 


76  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

me  with  Caird's  "  Oriental  Religions, "  and  ever 
since  I  read  it,  I  have  understood  that  there  were 
certain  virtues  in  heathen  religions,  accompanied 
by  a  great  many  vices,  and  that  these  virtues  are 
a  result  of  Christ,  the  true  light,  shedding  some 
light  into  the  heart  of  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world.  But  there  is  one  Christianity; 
only  one  Christ,  and  Christ  is  the  Christian. 
The  true  Christian  is  the  Christ-man — Christ, 
Christ,  Christ-i-anity. 

I  had  a  day  dream.  Men  gathered  together  to 
create  a  unity  of  lights.  The  first  man  had  a  taper 
from  a  child's  Christmas  tree,  the  second  man 
had  a  tallow  candle  and  the  third  a  kerosene 
lamp.  It  was  a  very  hot  day  in  August.  The 
first  man,  lighting  the  taper,  stood  out  in  a  high 
place  and  accosted  the  sun:  "O,  sun  in  the 
heavens,  I  will  assist  you.  Let  the  world  look  on 
while  we  create  unity  of  lights."  The  old  sun 
smiled  and  then  laughed,  and  then  with  a  ha  ha, 
ha  ha,  of  heat,  caused  the  melted  taper  to  fall 
upon  the  man's  hand  and  he  dropped  it  in  a  trice 
and  began  to  blow  the  burn,  muttering  between 
times,  '  'There  is  but  one  sun ;  there  is  but  one 
sun." 

The  second  man  with  his  lighted  tallow  candle 
greeted  the  sun,  saying:  "G-reat  sun  in  the 
heavens,  let  there  now  be  unity  of  lights. "  The 
hot  tallow  fell  upon  his  hand.     He  dropped  his 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  77 

candle  and  turned  to  record  in  his  note-book, 
"There  is  but  one  sun;  there  is  but  one  sun." 

The  third  man  said:  "Gentlemen,  I  will  show 
you  unity  of  lights."  Bringing  his  kerosene  oil 
lamp  lighted,  he  stood  out  on  the  high  place  and 
called  to  the  sun,  saying:  "O  sun  in  the  heavens, 
I  am  here  to  assist  you.  Let  us  produce  unity  of 
lights."  The  old  sun  sent  down  its  armies  of 
light  ninety-odd  millions  of  miles  and  threw  them 
against  the  man's  lamp  until  it  exploded,  and  he 
fell  to  the  earth,  blistered  and  groaning,  where- 
upon his  comrades  picked  him  up,  wrapped  him 
in  batting  and  vaseline,  placed  him  on  his  back 
in  the  long  grass,  and  I  heard  him  now  and  again 
groaning  out  the  words,  "There  is  but  one  sun; 
there  is  but  one  sun." 

I  recognize  the  virtues  amid  the  vices  of 
heathen  religions,  but  there  is  but  one  Christ; 
there  is  but  one  Christ.  O,  Church  of  Christ, 
he  is  your  hope,  and  you  are  the  instrument  of 
his  kingdom. 

4.  Christ  is  the  rightful  Lord  of  the  State. 
Margaret  Bottome  has  recently  given  to  the 
public  a  splendid  incident  illustrating  this  field  of 
expression  in  the  Christ-life.  She  says:  I  shall 
never  forget  an  experience  told  me  by  a  deeply 
devoted  woman,  who  found  herself  at  one  time 
living  in  a  state  where  the  women  were  citizens. 
She  was  called   upon   to   act  as  a  juror  upon  a 


78  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

murder  trial.  She  was  greatly  shocked  and  asked 
to  be  excused.  She  said  she  had  little  children 
and  wanted  to  know  if  she  could  not  be  released. 
She  was  asked  if  she  had  servants,  and  answered 
that  she  had.  Had  she  a  nurse  for  her  children  ? 
and  she  replied  that  she  had.  "You  can  not 
then  be  excused,"  was  the  answer  She  told  me 
she  went  to  her  room  and  prayed  as  she  never 
had  prayed  in  her  life  for  the  presence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  power  from 
on  high  to  rest  upon  her,  and  her  prayer  was 
answered,  and  she  said  that  never  in  her  life 
was  she  so  conscious  of  the  presence  of  God 
as  when  she  sat  on  that  jury  in  that  murder 
trial. 

Truth  is  truth,  whether  it  lives  in  a  legislative 
hall  or  a  Quaker  meeting-house.  And  it  is  not 
necessary  for  the  state  to  say  that  certain  things 
are  not  correct  simply  because  the  church  said 
they  were  correct.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  present 
union  of  church  and  state,  if  for  no  other  reason  be- 
cause both  are  imperfect.  But  the  state  need 
not  say  that  nine  and  nine  are  twenty  simply 
because  the  church  says  nine  and  nine  are  eigh- 
teen. The  state  need  not  adopt  the  reading 
of  Thomas  Carlyle  for  the  opening  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  in  the  morning  simply  because  there 
is  only  a  percentage  of  the  Scriptures  upon  which 
differing  factions  will  agree  as  most  suitable  for 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  79 

the  teachers  to  read  to  the  pupils  or  the  pupils  to 
say  in  concert.  Do  not  think  of  Christianity- 
being  narrower  than  nationalism.  Christianity 
is  world-wide,  and  Christ  is  king;  his  kingdom  is 
come,  his  kingdom  is  here,  his  kingdom  is  com- 
ing, his  kingdom  is  yet  to  come. 

Over  one  hundred  times  in  the  four  Gospels 
there  is  mentioned  this  kingdom  of  Christ,  or  the 
kingdom  of  God,  or  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  God's 
original  plan  was  to  govern  men  through  the  har- 
mony of  love  as  his  own  immediate  subjects;  and 
the  race  has  not  outgrown  him.  ' '  If  thou  release 
this  man, ' '  said  the  angry  Jews,  ' '  thou  art  not 
Caesar's  friend;  everyone  that  maketh  himself  a 
king  speaketh  against  Csesar."  The  chief  priests 
cried  out  "We  have  no  king  but  Cgesar."  How  far 
they  had  wandered  away  from  even  the  ideas  which 
prevailed  in  David's  time.  ' '  But  we  must  be  toler- 
ant." Yes,  indeed,  we  must  if  we  are  to  follow 
Jesus  Christ,  but  do  you  know,  that  a  vote  ap- 
pears almost,  if  not  quite,  as  sacred  as  a  baptism ; 
and  that,  wherever  and  however,  there  is  the 
buying  and  selling  of  public  offices,  of  the  running 
of  political  hobbies  for  the  sake  of  the  exaltation 
of  men  to  positions  where  their  income  will  more 
completely  equal  their  extreme  expenditures  for 
self  indulgences  and  vice,  and  in  so  far  as  we  give 
ourselves  to  endorse  it  and  by  our  neglect  permit 
it,  to  that  extent  we  would  if   the  issue  were  on 


80  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

with  Christ  in  the  flesh  standing  near  us  choose 
our  part  with  the  Roman  and  with  the  Pharisee 
rather  than  with  the  Christ.  Do  not  let  us  fear 
to  say  it,  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 
Truth  will  defeat  falsehood,  love  will  defeat  hate, 
joy  will  defeat  gloom,  and  life  will  defeat  death. 
And  what  being  can  tell  what  the  great  God  of 
the  nations  would  do  to-day  for  that  nation 
and  through  that  nation  which  would  pro- 
claim that  it  is  right  to  stand  with  the 
Christ — a  nation  which  instead  of  continuing  to 
expend  its  resources  in  coast  defenses  and  arms 
for  its  soldiers,  saying  meanwhile  that  the  way  to 
stop  war  is  to  get  ready  to  fight;  what  if  such  a 
nation  should  proclaim  to  the  world  "We  are 
Christ's  people;  we  will  lay  down  our  lives  for 
other  nations.  The  bravery  of  the  Son  of  God 
hath  entered  into  us.  We  will  not  increase  our 
territory  upon  the  basis  of  fear  of  consequences 
from  other  nations.  In  Christ  we  live  and  our's 
is  the  victory  of  the  Son  of  God."  Does  not  the 
very  statement  concerning  God's  providence  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  give  encouragement 
to  the  belief  that  such  a  nation  would  shine  as  the 
stars  in  the  firmament  and  live  guarded  as  one 
guards  the  apple  of  his  own  eye?  But  suppose 
such  a  nation  perish  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  life  of  a  nation  is  the  life  of  a  multitude  of 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  81 

individuals  and  it  would  live  on  in  eternal  worlds, 
just  as  the  true-hearted  individual  does;  there- 
fore, it  might  better  thus  perish.  Note 
these  words  so  recently  uttered  by  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England,  in  connection  with  his 
remarks  on  International  Arbitration,  before  the 
American  Bar  Association.  ' '  Who  can  say  that 
these  times  breathe  the  spirit  of  peace  ?  Na- 
tions armed  to  the  teeth  prate  of  peace,  but  there 
is  no  sense  of  peace.  One  sovereign  burthens 
the  industry  of  his  people  to  maintain  military 
and  naval  armament  at  war  strength,  and  his 
neighbor  does  the  like  and  justifies  it  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  other;  and  England,  insular  though 
she  be,  with  her  imperial  interests  scattered  the 
world  over,  follows,  or  is  forced  to  follow,  in  the 
wake.  If  there  be  no  war,  there  is  at  least  an 
armed  peace. 

<<  Figures  are  appalling.  I  take  those  for  1895. 
In  Austria  the  annual  cost  of  army  and  navy 
was,  in  round  figures,  £18,000,000;  in  France, 
£37,000,000;  in  Germany,  £27,000,000;  in  Great 
Britain,  £36,000,000;  in  Italy,  £13,000,000;  and 
in  Eussia,  £52, 000, 000.  The  significance  of  these 
figures  is  increased  if  we  compare  them  with 
those  of  former  times.  The  normal  cost  of  the 
armaments  of  war  has  of  late  years  enormously  in- 
creased. The  annual  interest  on  the  public  debt 
of  the  great  powers  is  a  war  tax.     Behind  this 


82  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

array  of  facts  stands  a  tragic  figure.  It  tells  a 
dismal  tale.  It  speaks  of  overburthened  indus- 
tries, of  a  waste  of  human  energy  unprofitably 
engaged,  of  the  squandering  of  treasure  which 
might  have  let  light  into  many  lives,  of  homes 
made  desolate,  and  all  this,  too  often,  without 
recompense  in  the  thought  that  these  sacrifices 
have  been  made  for  the  love  of  country  or  to 
preserve  national  honor  or  for  national  safety. 
When  will  governments  learn  the  lesson  that 
wisdom  and  justice  in  policy  are  a  stronger  se- 
curity than  weight  of  armament  ?  " 

"Ah!  when  shall  all  men's  good, 

Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  peace, 

Lie,  like  a  shaft  of  light,  across  the  land." 

I  am  not  forgetting  our  boast  of  bravery  and 
our  huzzahs,  many  of  them  prompted  by  evident 
spite  and  hate.  I  am  not  forgetting  the  proud 
boasts  of  national  honor,  but  neither  am  I  for- 
getting the  prayers  that  have  passed  from  the 
trembling  lips  of  the  sufferers  or  the  great  hearts 
that  have  broken  that  the  love  of  G-od  might  have 
sway,  and  the  women  of  peace  who  have  wept  in 
the  night  hours  for  the  population  which  has 
been  consigned  to  eternity  by  the  sword.  And 
moreover,  Assyria  was  great,  and  Rome  was  great, 
and  G-reece  was  great,  where  are  they  to-day  ? 
Every  nation  under  G-od's  skies  shall  thus  dimin- 
ish   and    fade    away    unless    it    recognizes    this 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  83 

Jesus  Christ  our  King.  He  micst  reign  until  he 
hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet.  Christ 
our  Redeemer,  "  Thy  kingdom  come."  The  tribe 
has  given  way  to  the  nation  and  the  nation  must 
recognize  the  world-bond.  We  travel  around  the 
world  in  less  than  sixty  days  and  talk  around  it 
in  a  few  minutes.  The  world  is  rapidly  becom- 
ing a  neighborhood  and  we  must  live  as  neigh- 
bors. That  man  who  sees  no  farther  than  his 
own  country  hath  not  had  his  own  vision  touched 
by  the  Son  of  God. 

There  are  not  wanting  men  who  sternly  oppose 
international  arbitration  right  at  this  time  when 
the  greatest  undertaking  in  behalf  of  interna- 
tional arbitration  is  being  carried  forward  with 
no  little  prospect  of  victory.  But  says  someone, 
there  are  reasons  for  opposing  arbitration.  Yes 
indeed,  and  there  are  reasons  for  betraying  Christ. 
A  few  pieces  of  silver  suggest  a  great  many  rea- 
sons, but  let  us  truly  believe  that  no  true  inspir- 
ation of  our  motives  can  exist  but  that  inspira- 
tion which  comes  out  of  the  heart  of  Christ.  And 
the  spirit  of  war  is  not  the  spirit  of  Christ. 

Just  at  this  time,  too,  there  comes  pressing  at 
the  doors  of  our  national  government  a  solicita- 
tion for  the  adoption  of  military  drill  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  As  if  the  boys  of  America  must 
recognize  soldiery  as  a  part  of  their  education. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the   necessities  of  the 


84  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

past  and  however  well  it  may  be  to  honor  the 
memory  of  those  who  have  laid  down  their  lives  in 
the  defense  of  some  great  principle,  or  are  to- 
day suffering  afflictions  as  a  result  of  battles  in 
the  defense  of  some  great  principle,  surely  we  arc 
too  near  the  noontide  of  Christian  civilization  to 
undertake  more  at  most  than  the  rudiments  of 
military  drill  in  the  public  schools.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  those  who  in  the  advocacy  of  this 
plan  plead  that  the  war-spirit  is  not  associated 
with  it  in  the  estimation  of  the  young  boy  have  not 
quite  sufficiently  recognized  the  subtle  thrift  of 
the  Cain-life. 

Humanity's  greatest  astonishment  and  acclaim 
awaits  the  exhibition  of  a  great  national  or  inter- 
national CONSCIENCE.  See  how  the  people  of 
America  respect  the  Society  of  Friends.  "Who 
jeers  at  the  Quaker  for  affirming  rather  than 
swearing  in  court?  What  a  gentle  respect  is 
offered  to  fhe  plain  garb  of  this  man  who  believes 
in  saying  ''thee"  and  "thou."  Those  who  be- 
lieve in  voting  as  a  religious  duty  would  not,  and 
those  who  believe  in  it  as  an  election  dodge  dare 
not  "egg"  the  Quaker  if  he  refuse  to  vote. 
Why  this  respect  equivalent  to  deference?  Ah! 
there  is  a  great  expression  of  a  great  conscience 
in  the  Quaker's  customs.  Get  that  into  the  na- 
tion. Let  there  be  brought  on  a  Revival  which 
shall    truly   make    the    conscience    Christly    and 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  85 

America's  very  character  would  be  worth  more 
m  a  minute  than  her  cannon  would  be  worth  in  a 
millenium  for  the  saving  of  the  poor  Armenians 
from  the  terror  of  the  unspeakable  Turk. 

In  the  heights  of  our  national  ideals  let  the 
glow  of  Peace  stream  through  a  cleansed  con- 
science and  war  shall  forever  cease. 

5.  Jesus  is  Lord  of  the  Home.  The  family  which 
is  really  at  the  base  of  all  social  conditions  is 
being  assaulted  in  our  day  by  the  most  dangerous 
enemies  both  to  it  and  to  Christ.  This  magnet 
which  attracts  men  and  women  over  land  and 
over  sea,  this  secret  place  where  of  all  others  men 
would  chose  to  lay  down  their  heads  in  death ; 
this  tree  of  life  '  'whose  protecting  boughs  touch 
the  morning  on  one  side  and  the  evening  on  the 
other,"  "home,  home,  sweet  home."  My  brother, 
let  Christ  into  your  home.  He  had  no  home- 
stead upon  earth,  bid  him  welcome  to  yours. 
Practices  of  divorce  have  become  so  common  that 
the  superintendent  of  the  National  Bureau  of 
Reforms  in  Washington  recently  said,  "Between 
the  contemporaneous  polygamy  of  the  Turkish 
harem  and  the  consecutive  polygamy  of  American 
'divorce  colony'  there  is  only  the  difference 
between  the  span  and  the  tandem."  In  this  same 
record  Mr.  Crafts  says  a  man  recently  secured  a 
divorce  in  a  city  of  the  west  after  three  months' 
residence,  and  on  the  same  day  married  a  woman 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


whom  he  had  brought  with  him  from  abroad  for 
tliat  purpose,  who  had  been  his  companion  during 
his  three  months'  waiting.  And  some  of  the  records 
of  the  statements  of  even  legislators  concerning 
this  question  would  startle  the  nation  terribly 
were  we  not  so  afflicted  with  the  mercantile  spirit. 
The  missionaries  who  return  to  this  country- 
are  calling  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  family 
prayers  are  falling  into  disuse  in  American 
homes.  The  plea  is  sometimes  made  that  modern 
conditions  of  business  and  city  life  render  this 
custom  impracticable.  And  it  is  therefore  hoped 
that  its  disuse  does  not  imply  any  particular 
relapse  in  morals.  But  modern  methods  of  busi- 
ness and  of  travel  permit  wonderful  activities  in 
games  of  cards,  in  theater-going,  in  dancing  and 
such  like.  Modern  methods  of  business  and 
travel  do  not  prevent  attending  to  the  holidays, 
to  the  sick  and  to  funerals.  It  is  true  that  the 
hospital,  a  direct  product  of  Christianity,  is 
assisting  wonderfully  in  the  care  of  the  sick,  but 
not  generally  to  the  exclusion  of  a  studied  home 
interest  in  the  afflicted  loved  ones.  And,  more- 
over, men  of  vast  business  pursuits  are  conduct- 
ing family  prayers  twice  a  day  in  their  homes.  I 
fear  that  the  cause  of  this  neglect  is  not  in  meth- 
ods of  business  or  travel,  but  in  fevered  mer- 
cantile spirit,  which  will  not  give  time  to  the 
blessedness  or  which  fears  the  searching  of  family 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  87 

prayers.  Let  us  change  the  custom.  Let  Christ 
into  the  home;  have  a  brief  season  of  steady  wor- 
ship. Let  him  be  at  our  dinner  tables,  let  him 
take  our  little  ones  up  in  his  arms,  let  him  com- 
fort our  troubled  ones  and  stand  by  the  coffins  of 
our  dead.  Our  dedicated  homes  shall  be  the 
dwelling  places  of  our  Christ — his  Bethanies. 

6.  But  now  let  me  ask  you  to  consider  the 
vital  question  which  has  resulted  from  all  the 
other  questions  connected  with  this  opposition  to 
Christ.  It  is  this:  "We  have  crowded  him  out  of 
the  heart.  Get  Christ  truly  enthroned  in  your 
heart  and  you  will  find  his  claim  as  constant  as 
the  passing  moments  of  your  life.  You  will  sleep 
in  him  by  night,  and  awaken  to  serve  him  by  day. 
Your  business  affairs  and  your  social  relations  will 
know  the  very  moulding  of  his  own  hands.  We 
can  not  have  Christian  nations  unless  we  have 
Christian  individuals.  We  can  not  have  Christian 
cities  unless  we  have  Christian  citizens. 

And  no  amount  of  legislation  about  the  home  or 
the  church  or  the  nation  can  find  its  way  in  to 
victory  when  Christ  is  crowded  out  of  the  heart. 
Divorces  may  decrease  but  adultery  will  increase 
unless  the  heart  has  turned  from  "self  "  to  Christ. 
This  awful  night-covered,  sly.  Scripture-con- 
demned sin  of  our  day,  leaving  limp  and  crushed 
lives  all  along  the  path  of  its  indulgence  and  lock- 
ing  up  the  doors  of   hope   in  the  very  faces  of 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


ostracized  maidens  while  the  very  movement  of 
the  same  lock  swings  full  wide-open  the  doors  of 
liberty  to  passion-heated  men  right  beside  them, 
can  never  be  mastered  and  cast  out  saving  by  Him 
who  casts  out  devils  living  in  the  heart.  My 
brother,  give  Christ  your  heart.  Sound  the 
depths  of  your  being  with  his  help,  find  there  the 
power  to  love  or  hate,  to  be  true  or  untrue,  and 
loyally  surrender  yourself.  Hear  Him  saying 
unto  you,  "My  son,  give  me  thy  heart."  What 
the  rainbow  is  to  the  storm,  what  the  parlor  is  to 
the  house,  what  the  mother  is  to  the  family,  that 
the  heart  is  to  the  man.  I  beseech  of  you  think 
the  best  thoughts  you  can  gather,  cherish  the 
best  feelings  of  which  you  are  capable,  raise  your 
ambitions  to  the  highest  altitude  possible,  but 
remember  Christ  alone  can  be  the  inspiration  of 
that  which  is  good.  Start  here.  Do  not  try  so 
much  to  be  good  as  to  be  loyal  to  Christ. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  heard  a  story  of  a  young 
woman  who  engaged  to  marry  a  rich  young  man. 
As  the  time  appointed  for  the  wedding  drew  near 
the  young  man's  business  affairs  were  ruined. 
Soon  as  the  bankruptcy  came  he  wrote  the  young 
woman  telling  her  that  he  would  release  her  hon- 
orably from  her  engagement  to  marry  him,  and 
assuring  her  that  it  was  only  because  he  had  lost 
his  property.  She  replied  to  his  letter,  saying 
that  she  did  not  engage  to  marry  him  because  of 


THE  MASTERY  OF  CHRIST  89 

his  property,  but  because  she  loved  him,  and  in 
the  days  of  his  greater  prosperity  he  had  given 
her  a  nugget  of  gold  which  was  rich  enough  to 
provide  necessities  for  the  wedding  and  some  con- 
veniences for  the  home,  that  she  was  willing  to 
abide  by  the  engagement  and  assist  him  in  the 
struggle  out  of  his  debts.  The  engagement  was 
continued  and  the  marriage  occurred.  That 
young  woman  had  given  that  young  man  her 
heart.  And  I  would  have  you  to-day  give  your- 
self to  Christ  poorer  or  richer,  more  or  less  com- 
fortable, honored  or  dishonored.  See,  see  his 
beauty!  Hearken,  it  is  he  that  speaks  so  tenderly 
to  your  soul  to-day,   "Give  me  thy  heart." 

"'Pears  to  me,"  said  the  old  colored  woman 
who  was  being  taught  by  the  missionary  to  read, 
and  who  found  herself  Yevj  slow  at  learning, 
"  'pears  to  me  I  could  get  along  better  if  you  jes* 
learn  me  the  word  '  Jesus  '  first.  '  Pears  to  me 
everything  would  come  in  sort  o'  natural  after- 
ward." Her  philosophy  was  right,  whether  its 
application  could  be  realized  or  not.  Jesus 
first,  and  everything  will  find  its  place  in  due  or- 
der. Give  him  your  heart.  O,  that  the  crude 
statement  of  the  Scotch  miner  might  be  the  very 
soul  expression  of  all  who  read  this.  The  man 
had  never  been  out  of  the  mining  regions  before. 
He  came  to  the  great  city  and  in  the  first  meet- 
ing undertook  (what  I  wish  you  would  all  do)  to 


90  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

testify.  After  apologizing  for  his  rough  appear- 
ance and  imperfect  language,  he  paused  a  mo^ 
ment,  then,  with  tears  in  his  eyes  cried  out: 
*'  But  my  Jesus,  he's  a  beauty." 

Now  calmly  tell  me,  dear  reader,  have  you  ever 
been  mastered  ?  And  who  is  your  master  ?  Deep 
as  the  depths  of  your  soul,  may  you  find  the 
answer  coming  to  your  lips  to-day,  I  have  one 
Master  even  Jesus  Christ. 


ETCHINGS  OF  THE  RE 
DEMPTIVE   IDEA. 


"  The  people's  heart  is  like  a  harp  for  years 
Hung  where  some  petrifying  torrent  rains 
Its  slow-encrusting  spray;  the  stiffened  chords 

Faint  and  more  faint  make  answer  to  the  tears 
That  drip  upon  them;  idle  are  all  words; 
Only  a  golden  plectrum  wakes  the  tone 
Deep  buried  'neath  that  ever- thickening  stone." 
— James  Russell  Lowell. 

"  The  Son  of  God  who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself 
UP  FOR  ME." — Oalatians  ii:  20. 

"  Say  to  men,  Come,  suffer;  you  will  hunger  and 
thirst;  you  will,  perhaps,  be  deceived,  be  betrayed, 
cursed;  but  you  have  a  great  duty  to  accomplish;  they 
will  be  deaf,  perhaps,  for  a  long  time  to  the  severe  voice 
of  virtue;  but  on  the  day  that  they  do  come  to  you,  they 
will  come  as  heroes,  and  will  be  invincible." 

— Joseph  Mazzini. 

"  How  unspeakably  precious  Jesus  has  been." 

— Last  words  of  Rev.  S.  A.  Keen,  D.D. 

"  You  sinned!"  I  cried  in  righteous  scorn, 
"  None  will  forget  the  stain;" 
I  turned  aside,  he  crept  away 
And  went  to  sin  again. 

"  You  sinned!"  I  said  in  pitying  tones, 

As  love  my  wrath  o'erbore, 
"  But  God  and  I  forgive;"  he  rose 

And  went  to  sin  no  more. 


ETCHINGS    OF    THE    REDEMPTIVE 
IDEA. 

T  SAW  the  lowest  rung  on  the  ladder  of  redemp- 
*  tion  in  the  window  of  a  pawn-broker's  shop 
one  day.  There  were  scores  of  tickets  hung  up 
there,  upon  which  was  printed  "unredeemed 
watches  for  sale."  And  I  thought,  to  be  sure, 
there  is  the  redemption  of  a  watch.  Some  man 
either  out  of  necessity  or  perhaps  for  vice  has 
come  to  this  place  to  pawn  his  watch  and  he  has 
never  come  back  again  to  pay  the  money  with 
interest  as  the  redemption  price  of  the  article. 
So  they  called  the  watch  unredeemed.  But  sup- 
posing it  were  redeemed,  even  then,  it  would 
represent  a  very,  very  low  grade  of  redemption. 
Perhaps  five  dollars  would  be  the  price.  Then 
when  you  have  redeemed  it,  if  it  goes  too  slow, 
you  may  miss  a  train  on  account  of  it  and  thus 
miss  the  receiving  of  much  more  money  than  its 
redemption  price.  Or  supposing  it  goes  too  fast, 
you  may  administer  drops  of  medicine  too  quickly 
to  your  sick  friend  and  cause  his  death;  and  at 
best  it  is  only  a  watch.  And  I  fear  that  even  so 
small  a  thing  as  a  watch  has  declined  many  a 
soul  from  a  singleness  of  purpose  to  glorify  God. 


94  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Yet  if  I  were  to  pay  the  redemption  price  and 
hand  you  your  watch  to-day,  had  you  been  com- 
pelled to  pawn  it,  how  you  would  thank  me  and 
tell  your  friends,  too,  of  what  you  would  call  a 
great  act  of  kindness.  Can  it  be  possible  that 
you  have  never  really  looked  up  to  the  Christ  that 
has  redeemed  us,  and  said  "thank  you  ?  " 

Let  us  now  step  upon  a  higher  rung  of  the  ladder 
of  redemption,  for  you  know,  every  subject  requires 
to  be  looked  at  from  the  proper  standpoint,  and 
step  by  step  we  may  come  into  the  richer  treas- 
ures of  this  subject,  just  as  the  person  who  be- 
gins to  play  the  piano  plays  first  with  one  finger, 
then  with  one  hand,  then  with  both  hands  and 
so  on  until  she  becomes  a  successful  musician, 
charming  the  very  harmony  out  of  the  instru- 
ment. 

Here  then  is  the  second  rung  of  the  ladder  of 
redemption.  A  poor  widow  lives  in  a  cottage  set- 
tled on  a  narrow  strip  of  land  at  the  edge  of  the 
city.  Both  the  land  and  the  cottage  are  encum- 
bered with  a  heavy  mortgage.  The  little  daugh- 
ter, borrowing  her  mother's  features  and  growing 
into  young  womanhood,  has  resolved  to  redeem 
the  property  from  the  mortgage.  She  studies 
diligently  until  she  becomes  a  wage-earner  and 
with  great  economy  and  willingness  she  finds  her- 
self able  to  pay  one  hundred  dollars  on  the  mort- 
gage at  the  end  of  the  first  year.     At  the  end  of 


ETCHINGS  OF  THE  REDEMPTIVE  IDEA       95 

the  second  year  her  fidelity  is  rewarded  with  the 
ability  to  pay  twice  as  much.  Her  sick  mother 
does  not  know  that  the  daughter  is  receiving 
more  than  barely  enough  to  pay  for  the  fuel  and 
groceries  and  clothing  which  they  need,  but  now 
a  few  years  have  sped  away  and  the  daughter  en- 
tering the  door  of  the  modest  little  home  in  the 
evening  twilight  carries  the  folded  paper  which 
has  been  against  the  property  all  these  years  and 
places  it  in  the  hands  of  her  feeble  mother  With 
great  surprise  the  mother  inquires,  '  'What  is  this, 
my  daughter  ?  "  Quick  as  thought  the  daughter 
turns  to  get  her  mother's  spectacles  and  bids  her 
read  it;  but  the  mother  can  not  read  the  writing 
easily  and  in  her  eagerness  cries  out,  ' '  Tell  me, 
daughter,  what  it  is. "  Then  comes  the  surprising 
answer,  "Mother,  this  is  the  mortgage.  The 
property  is  redeemed.  Our  house  and  lot  are 
free."  What  mother  would  not  press  the  cheeks 
of  her  daughter  between  her  soft  hands  and  kiss 
her  lips  again  and  again,  at  the  thought  of  such 
kindness  and  fidelity  as  this  daughter  showed. 
My  friend,  if  one  were  thus  to  redeem  your  prop- 
erty for  you,  would  you  not  thank  him,  would  you 
not  talk  of  him  to  your  friends,  and  for  days  to- 
gether, and  on  special  days  for  years  would  it  not 
be  the  burden  of  your  conversation,  he  redeemed 
the  property  for  me,  he  surprised  me  with  his 
kindness,  now  hard  he  toiled,  how  willing  he  was, 


96  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN  LIFE 

how  lovingly  he  did  it.  Yet  the  price  of  the  re- 
demption, though  very  much  greater  than  that  of 
the  watch  at  the  pawnbroker's  shop,  is  by  far  less 
than  the  greatest  conceivable  price  to  be  paid, 
while  that  daughter  has  learned  many  lessons  of 
economy  and  of  diligence  which  will  be  worth 
more  than  gold  or  silver  to  her  character.  Every 
hour  of  that  toiling  was  a  contribution  to  her 
soul  if  performed  in  the  true  spirit.  Then,  too,  the 
house  may  be  burned  to  ashes  to-night,  or  the 
tornado  may  sweep  it  away,  or  an  earthquake 
may  swallow  it  up,  or  the  poor  widow  may  be- 
come so  delighted  with  the  home  on  earth  free 
from  encumbrances  as  to  cause  her  to  neglect  the 
title  to  a  home  off  one  of  the  golden  streets  of  the 
New  Jerusalem.  Yes,  indeed,  a  beautiful  act  of 
redemption  has  been  performed,  but  there  is  a 
higher. 

Now  let  us  step  up  another  rung  of  this  ladder 
and  look  upon  redemption  as  the  Jews  viewed  it. 
Peter  evidently  refers  to  their  custom  of  redemp- 
tion, when  he  says,  ' '  Ye  are  not  redeemed  with 
corruptible  things  such  as  silver  and  gold;"  when 
the  Jewish  child  was  thirty  days  of  age,  the 
father  would  carry  it  to  the  priest  and  present 
with  it  thirty  pieces  of  silver  as  a  redemptive  of- 
fering. Then  the  priest  would  swing  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  about  the  head  of  the  child  and 
ask  the  father  whether  he  would  have  the  child  or 


ETCHINOS  OF  THE  REDEMPTIVE  IDEA       97 

the  money.  The  father  answered,  a  small  meal 
was  partaken  of,  the  money  was  placed  in  the 
treasury  of  the  temple  and  the  child  was  said  to 
be  redeemed.  Then  followed  certain  rites  of  sac- 
rifice of  animals  in  due  time.  Here  the  redemp- 
tion does  not  concern  a  watch  or  house  and  lot, 
but  a  little  innocent  child.  The  child  is  dedicated 
with  fatherly  regard  in  the  interest  of  the  relig- 
ion of  Jehovah,  and  out  of  respect  to  his  cove- 
nant, it  is  therefore  called  a  redeemed  child.  But 
how  many  redeemed  Jewish  children  told  false- 
hoods and  turned  traitors  against  their  parents; 
and  the  price,  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  lovingly  de- 
posited is  at  best  only  a  little  money.  I  think 
it  is  not  a  hard  task  for  that  father  to  leave  the 
herding  of  his  sheep  or  his  plowing  in  the  hot 
sun,  to  don  clean  garments  and  make  his  way  to 
the  priest,  carrying  with  him  the  sweet  babe  he 
loves,  yet,  what  call  for  gratitude  is  involved  in 
this  act.  Here  is  a  man  with  heathen  nations  all 
about  him,  pleading  the  interests  of  his  own  little 
child,  when  the  child  is  too  young  to  plead  for  it- 
self; recognizing  for  the  child  the  true  God,  when 
the  child  is  so  young  that  it  can  not  express  any 
personal  recognition  and  paying  with  joy  the 
price  of  toil,  the  redemption  of  the  little  one. 

One  act  of  my  mother's  before  I  was  twelve 
years  of  age  has  stirred  my  soul  hundreds  of  times, 
until  I  have  fairly  wept  with   gratitude  at  the 


98  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

thought  of  her  deed.  And  shall  I  not  say  ' '  thank 
you  "  to  Christ,  who  redeemed  me  before  I  had  yet 
had  my  first  struggle  with  sin,  that  I  might  be 
counted  among  the  victors  of  his  blood?  O,  soul 
of  mine,  thou  must  appreciate  redemption.  Chris- 
tian Redemption.  Come,  study  it,  let  it  breathe 
its  meaning  into  thy  life.  Redeemed,  redeemed, 
redeemed! 

Still  higher.  Let  us  look  upon  redemption  as 
it  was  illustrated  when  nearly  four  millions  of 
slaves  were  set  free  in  the  United  States.  Many 
of  these  men  had  been  accustomed  to  being  shipped 
to  and  fro  in  dry-goods  boxes  as  chattels  or  things, 
they  had  been  sold  at  public  auction,  they  had 
been  goaded  to  their  tasks  and  belittled  by  their 
enslavement.  The  question  of  their  redemption 
began  to  flood  the  mind  and  soul  of  such  men  as 
G-arrison  and  Phillips  and  Beecher  and  Lincoln 
until  it  burst  forth  like  a  healing  fountain.  It 
was  a  question  as  to  whether  men  should  be 
chained  to  heavy  balls  or  allowed  to  be  at  liberty, 
whether  they  should  be  lashed  over  the  back  in 
the  hot  sun  or  find  the  quiet  retreat  of  a  shade 
tree  for  rest — slavery  or  freedom.  And  the 
price  of  their  redemption  ?  Who  can  tell  it  ? 
What  mother's  tears  fall  silently  in  the 
evening  twilight  from  her  uplifted  eyes?  What 
father's  heart-beats  may  be  heard  above  the  mild 
breezes    of   the   summer   morning    hours   as   he 


ETCHINGS  OF  THE  REDEMPTIVE  IDEA       99 

stands  lost  in  the  imagination  that  he  hears  the 
footsteps  of  his  returning  soldier  boy?  What  lover 
loses  heart  and  sickens,  or  with  broken  heart 
dies?  What  gaps  in  family  circles?  What  noises 
of  distress  mingle  with  the  gloom  of  dark  days  of 
home-sickness  among  sick  and  wounded  soldiers? 
What  mornings  are  refused  the  glory  of  sunrise 
because  the  smoke  of  battle  fights  back  the  light 
of  God?  What  blood  stains  the  torn  earth? 
What  graves  are  these  over  which  the  flowers  are 
strewn  in  springtime?  What  flags  and  emblems 
are  torn  and  trampled  under  the  feet  of  frenzied 
war-horses?  What  old  hymn-books  sent  by 
Christian  people  to  the  battle  front  are  nowadays 
taken  down  by  the  newly  converted  old  soldier 
that  he  may  sing  this  time  from  the  heart, 
< 'Sweet  hour  of  prayer,"  or  "There  is  a  happy 
land  ?  " 

Louis  Beaudry  said  that  he  learned  to  sing 
"There  is  a  happy  land"  another  way  after 
being  in  Libby  prison  and  hearing  Sunday-school 
children  through  the  window  sing  it  together  one 
morning.  They  sang,  "There  is  a  happy  land, 
far,  far  away,"  but  now,  said  he,  since  I  have 
learned  a  deeper  love  of  God  I  sing  it,  there 
is  a  happy  land  7iot  far  away,  and  I  do  not  weep 
singing  it  now  as  I  did  that  morning.  What 
angels  are  these  who  watch  the  homes  of 
patient   widows   and   bereaved     children    whose 


100  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

husbands   and   fathers  knew   no   better   way   of 
deliverance  than  war? 

But  the  emancipation  of  the  slave  has  never 
yet  proven  a  success  in  the  widest  sense,  and  in- 
deed we  can  not  point  to  a  great  emancipation  in 
history  which  has  proven  a  thorough  success. 
The  greatest  undertaking  of  the  kind  perhaps 
ever  reported  was  that  of  leading  the  Jews  out  of 
the  bondage  of  Egypt,  but  the  Jew  to  this  day  has 
never  been  a  national  success.  He  wanders  about 
in  ten  thousand  cities,  yet  he  does  not  gather  with 
his  own  fellows  to  settle  as  a  people  in  one  nation. 
He  substitutes  a  sort  of  moral  rectitude  for 
the  teachings  of  Abraham  or  Moses  as  well 
as  those  of  Jesus.  Sadly  down  the  path 
of  history  has  the  Jew  been  walking,  more  than  a 
mere  pantomime  of  prophecy.  He  has  been  a 
fulfillment  of  it.  So  here  the  colored  man  is  out 
of  the  dry  goods  box,  he  is  unchained  from  the 
ball,  the  lashes  do  not  smart  his  weary  shoulders, 
and  with  the  exception  of  some  very  sad  cases  of 
abuse  yet  existing^  he  does  not  suffer  the  sting 
of  opposition  and  degradation  he  once  did,  but  he 
is  shrouded  in  darkness,  he  is  the  subject  of  the 
proclamation  of  emancipation,  but  the  best  repre- 
sentatives of  his  own  race  proclaim  with  eloquence 
and  tears  that  he  needs  the  proclamation  of 
divine  redemption.  He  is  free  at  certain  points, 
but    his   mind   is    captivated  with  centuries   o/ 


ETCHINGS  OF  THE  REDEMPTIVE  IDEA     101 

ignorance,  his  body  is  captivated  with  centuries 
of  indulgence,  and  his  soul  with  centuries  of 
sin.  The  war  produced  a  great  emancipation 
but  it  did  not  produce  the  emancipation  of 
the  colored  man  from  selfishness.  And  many  a 
man  who  went  forth  in  that  war  went  not  forth 
with  the  conception  of  liberating  the  slave, 
many  a  soldier  doubtless  knew  no  great  tide  of 
philanthropy  filling  his  soul  as  he  enlisted.  Yet 
had  you  or  I  been  one  of  those  colored  slaves,  how 
we  would  bless  the  memory  of  the  man  who  came 
to  set  us  free,  how  we  would  talk  of  it  in  our 
households,  how  we  would  vie  with  each  other  to 
show  the  deepest  gratitude. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  tells  the  following  in- 
cident concerning  these  people:  Toward  evening  he 
went  out  to  the  adjacent  camp  of  the  Fifty-fifth 
Massachusetts  (colored)  regiment.  Crowded 
around  were  the  plantation  "hands,"  clothed  in 
the  rags  and  ignorance  inherited  from  the  dead  in- 
iquity. < '  Well, "  cried  Mr.  Garrison,  ' '  you  are  free 
at  last.  Let  us  give  three  cheers."  He  led  off. 
To  his  utter  amazement  there  was  no  response. 
The  poor  creatures  looked  at  him  with  a  surprise 
equal  to  his  own.  He  had  to  give  the  second  and 
third  cheers  also  without^  them.  They  did  not 
know  how  to  cheer.  But  they  have  learned 
how.  How  they  do  talk  about  father  Abraham. 
Come  soul  of  mine,  talk  about  Jesus.     Rouse  thee, 


103  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

rouse  thee,  if  thou  hast  any  sense  of  gratitude 
left  or  to  be  attained,  express  it  here.  Christ 
hath  redeemed  thee.     Eedeemed,  redeemed  ! 

I  am  going  to  ask  you  shortly  to  step  up  another 
rung  of  this  great  ladder  of  redemption,  and  we 
can  only  step  there  because  Christ  has  come  and 
the  Scriptures  have  been  given.  I  am  going  to 
ask  you  to  view  Christian  Redemption.  We  could 
not  think  of  stepping  up  there  without  the  Christ 
and  the  revelation,  for  we  know  of  nothing  human 
which  corresponds  with  the  redemptive  thought 
announced  and  lived  out  by  Jesus  Christ.  Csesar 
wanted  his  throne  with  .  ten  thousand  soldiers 
to  give  it  to  him.  Romulus  slew  thousands  of 
people  that  he  might  be  exalted  as  a  great  man 
among  men.  Alexander  wept  because  he  could  lay 
no  more  people  tribute  to  his  vain-glory.  This  is 
true  of  the  ambitions  of  the  natural  man.  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  said  in  one  of  his  late  utterances, 
* '  The  survival  of  the  fittest  by  no  means  implies 
the  survival  of  the  best."  Indeed  it  does  not. 
Humanity's  survivals  have  been  survivals  of  ma- 
lice and  hatred  and  brute  force,  with  occasional 
splendid  exceptions  which  show  us  gleamings  of 
that  light  which  lighteth  every  man  coming  into 
the  world.  Humanity's  survivals  among  the 
Chinese  will  slay  the  female  child,  and  among  the 
Hindoo  will  insist  upon  child-widowhood,  and 
among  the  North  American  Indians  will  leave  the 


ETCHINGS  OF  THE  REDEMPTIVE  IDEA     103 

(5ld  man  to  die  by  the  trail  becauseihe  can  not  keep 
jip  in  the  hunting  race.  Humanity's  best  general 
production  of  a  redemptive  mark  has  never 
reached  the  mark  of  unselfishness.  O,  I  wish  we 
might  conceive  how  Christ  transformed  the  idea 
of  what  it  is  to  be  great.  Do  you  not  see  how  He 
substituted  the  life  of  service  for  the  life  of  domi- 
neering. What  bravery  of  faith,  what  gentleness 
df  love  are  seen  plain  as  the  light  of  day  in  his 
doing  what  we  would  call  the  greatest  of  daring 
as  he  takes  the  lowliest  place  and  performs  the 
completest  of  service,  even  going  so  far  as  to  take 
the  position  of  a  slave  and  washing  the  disciples' 
feet.  And  let  us  never  forget — will  not  the 
reader  pause  to  consider,  what  Jesus  says  about 
this  event  of  the  feet-washing,  '  •  Jesus  knowing 
that  the  Father  had  given  all  things  into  his 
hands,  and  that  he  came  forth  from  God  and 
goeth  unto  God,  riseth  from  supper,"  then  he 
proceeds  to  wash  their  feet.  When  his  perfect 
consciousness  of  his  divinity  is  at  full  height,  when 
he  is  truest  in  his  representation  of  God  himself, 
knowing  that  he  came  forth  and  knowing  that  he 
is  to  return  unto  the  Father,  he  proceeds  to  the 
service  of  a  slave.  He  not  only  came  as  a  man. 
He  came  as  our  man.  He  touches  us  and  com- 
pletely reverses  the  idea  of  what  it  is  to  be  man- 
ly, and  it  is  said  the  Father  gave  Him  authority 
to  execute  judgment  because  He  is  the  Son  of 


104  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

man.  It  is  plain  that  there  is  no  contradiction 
but  rather  the  completest  agreement  in  the  di- 
vine nature  and  the  spirit  of  readiest  service  which 
can  find  way  into  our  hearts.  God  has  always 
been  sacrificial  and  Christ  was  the  expression  of 
that,  and  when  we  become  godly  we  shall  be  sac- 
rificial. Now  bear  in  mind  this  bent  of  character 
is  not  yet  common  to  humanity.  Bring  the  best 
apparent  constructions  of  the  redemptive  act  and 
lift  the  hatchways  and  look  well  down  into  your 
construction  and  you  will  find  stored  away  some- 
where in  the  hold  of  the  vessel  that  sly  tramp 
called  self.  It  is  not  so  wonderful  that  Jesus 
should  come  to  die  for  sinners  when  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  his  own  teaching ;  it  would  have 
been  wonderful  had  he  not  come.  But  from  my 
standpoint,  with  the  strong  disposition  of  the  self- 
life,  it  is  the  marvel  of  marvels. 


CHRISTIAN    REDEMPTION, 


"In  taking  our  nature  into  union  with  his  own,  God 
conferred  the  rarest  and  highest  honor  on  humanity;  so^, 
since  he  redeemed  men  with  the  blood  of  his  Son,  th« 
highest  angels  do  not  wear  crowns  so  bright  as  the  thief 
on  the  cross  and  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner.  As  in 
the  families  of  men  the  youngest  child  is  seated  by  day 
next  to  its  father,  and  lies  closest  by  night  to  its 
mother's  breast;  as  in  the  material  heaven  it  is  not  the 
largest  but  the  smallest  planets  that  revolve  in  orbits 
nearest  to  the  sun;  so,  in  consequence  of  redeeming 
love,  though  in  his  original  position  inferior  to  the 
angels,  man  occupies  in  the  family  of  God,  and  in  those 
heavens  of  which  the  visible  are  but  ,]the  starry  pave- 
ment, a  place  nearest  to  the  throne.  And  by  the  law 
that  to  whom  much  is  given  of  them  shall  much  ba 
required,  those  whom  God  has  most  loved  are  most 
bound  to  love;  those  whom  he  has  most  glorified  are 
most  bound  to  glorify  him." — Thomas  Outhrie. 

'  *  Knowing  that  ye  were  redeemed,  not  with  corruptible 
things,  with  silver  or  gold,  from  your  vain  manner  of  lif6 
handed  down  from  your  fathers,  hiit  with  precious  blood, 
as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot,  even  tM 
blood  of  Christ;  who  was  foreknown  indeed  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  but  was  manifested  at  the  end  o) 
the  times  for  your  sake.— 1.  Peter  i:  18,  19,  20.  (R.  V.) 

"  Thou  didst  leave  thy  throne  and  thy  kingly  crown 
When  thou  camest  to  earth  for  me; 
But  in  Bethlehem's  home  there  was  found  no  room 
For  thy  holy  nativity. 

Foxes  found  their  rest,  and  the  birds  had  their  nests 

In  the  shade  of  the  cedar  tree; 
But  thy  couch  was  the  sod,  Oh.  thou  Son  of  God, 

In  the  deserts  of  Galilee. 

—Emily  S.  Elliott, 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION. 

'T^His  is  a  theme  in  which  the  angels  are  inter- 
■■•  ested.  How  broad  is  Christian  redemption  in 
its  sweep  of  meaning.  Through  this  great  fact  a 
better  body  is  in  store  for  humanity,  even  a  spir- 
itual body  ready  in  the  coming  days  and  like  that 
of  the  Master  himself.  A  better  condition  of 
thinking  is  involved  in  this  redemption,  for  we 
are  bidden  to  bring  every  thought  into  subjec- 
tion to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  A  better  social 
condition  is  involved  for  we  are  by  love  to  serve 
one  another,  and  in  the  cleansing  bf  the  heart 
from  all  sin,  the  raising  of  the  whole  being  to  a 
new  life  as  well  as  a  new  ideal  are  included  in  this 
great  redemption.  Man  was  to  be  lifted  out  of 
the  circle  where  self  is  center  into  the  circle 
where  Christ  is  all,  the  very  springs  of  action 
and  the  very  motives  of  living^made  God-like, 
with  the  record  of  the  past  freely  forgiven,  and 
the  life  made  already  fresh  and  new  with  the  fore- 
taste of  the  resurrection  glory. 

Let  us  climb  to  the  rung  of  the  ladder  where 
the  angels  stand,  and  look  off  upon  the  scene.  As 
lower  than  man  in  the  scale  of  creation  is  the  ani- 


108  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

mal,  so  just  over  on  the  other  side  is  the  angel.* 
This  high  intelligence  reckons  among  its  glories 
a  race  of  beings  which  never  tasted  sin.  These 
unfallen  ones  are  frequently  represented  in  the 
Scriptures  as  sweetly  in  communion  with  God  and 
as  manifesting  a  helpful  interest  in  humanity. 

What  range  of  intelligence  and  of  moral  nature 
they  possess  is  not  definitely  known  but  it  is 
thought  to  be  very  vast  on  account  of  some  sug- 
gestive things  said  about  them.  Great  missions 
have  been  denied  them.  They  were  permitted  to 
minister  to  Jesus  after  the  temptation,  they  were 
not  permitted  to  come  into  the  final  struggle  con- 
nected with  his  arrest  and  crucifixion.  We  need 
not  hesitate  to  draw  near  and  look  upon  their  in- 
teresting but  inadequate  view  of  redemption. 
Peter  speaking  expressly  of  redemption  by  the 
precious  blood  of  Christ  says,  "Which  things  the 
angels  desire  to  look  into." 

What  strange  communications  must  have 
been  exchanged  between  those  sons  of  light 
as  through  many  years  they  heard  the 
story  of  the  coming  incarnation  of  the  Son 
of  God.  How  their  pure  natures  must  have 
throbbed  to  some  sweeter  melody  as  they  dreamed 
redemption's    dream,    and   when    that    morning 


*Mark  says  that  during  Jesus'  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  "  He 
was  with  the  WILD  BEASTS  and  ANGELS  ministered  unto  him." 
(Mark  i :  13.)  Thus  behold  the  representative  of  true  manhood 
standing  with  the  beasts  on  one  side  and  the  angels  on  the  other. 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  109 

came  for  the  cloud-height  melody  and  a  holy  band 
was  commissioned  to  sing,    "Glory  to  G-od  in  the 
highest,    on  earth  good-will    among   men;"  also 
when  after  noting  the  awful  conflict  with  the  evil 
one  in  the  wilderness  where  the  Son  of  man  was 
maintained  sinless,  they  drew  near  that  some  new 
draft  of  heavenliness  might  quench  the  thirst  of 
the  weary  and    victorious    Immanuel;  how  they 
must  have  ushered    back   again   glad   with  a  de- 
lightsome awe,  and  when    they   saw   the   great 
sweat  drop  as  blood  to  the  ground  in  Gethsemane 
they  hastened  willing  and  expectant  ministers  to 
the  agonizing  life  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  note  that 
their  immediate  help  was  of  no  such  quality  as  to 
be  needed  in  such  a  battle;   how  their  awe  must 
have  deepened  in  intensity  until  there  were  great 
punctuations  in  the  ascriptions   and  melodies  of 
the  heavenly  world.      And  when  that  rude  frame 
of  wood  bore  the  form  of    him  who  planted  the 
germ  of  every  aspen,  and  his    cry  was  heard  far 
over  the  hill,  the  echo  of  which  has  gone  around 
and  around  the  earth  and  far  into  the  heavens, 
until  angels  knew  it  was  the  cry  of  one  tasting 
death  for  every  man,  how  they  must  have  looked 
upon  this  earth,  on  the  one  hand  to  raise  unpre- 
cedented acclaims,  and  on  the  other  hand  with 
trembling  reverence.     How  over  that  cross  and 
around  that  sepulchre   their  thoughts  must  have 
hovered,  as  if  they  were  looking  out  upon  some 


no  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

great  aurora  of  providence,  or  how  like  the  na- 
tives of  Africa  whom  Livingston  describes,  they 
dared  not  approach  the  great  Victoria  Falls  be- 
cause they  supposed  them  to  represent  the  edge  of 
the  world;  these  holy  ones  looked  off  upon  the 
scene. 

But  they  have  never  turned  from  the  atmos- 
phere of  sinfulness  to  the  life-giving  breezes  of  for- 
giveness and  eternal  health.  They  had  never 
known  the  dashing  waves  yield  their  prey  to  the 
land  of  deliverance,  nor  had  they  ever  passed 
through  furnaces  heated  seven  times  hot  by  pas- 
sions, whose  fires  they  themselves  had  fanned; 
being  delivered  without  the  smell  of  fire  upon 
them. 

Deliverance  from  the  miry  pit  makes  the  rock 
feel  solid.  Since  sin  is  in  the  world  it  is  idle  to 
argue  about  the  details  of  how  it  came  here.  I 
am  not  so  much  concerned  about  its  pedigree  as 
about  its  power.  I  am  not  so  much  concerned 
about  the  fruit  Adam  ate  as  about  the  poison 
discovered  in  my  nature.  It  does  not  so  much 
concern  a  man  when  he  discovers  a  thief  in  his 
house  whether  he  came  in  through  the  door  or  the 
window  as  it  does  to  get  him  out  of  the  house 
before  some  terrible  act  of  violence  has  been  com- 
mitted. So  it  does  not  so  much  concern  me 
about  the  details  of  the  way  I  came  to  be  a  sinner 
as  about  the  awful  fact  that  I  am  a  sinner.     The 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  111 

disease  has  struck  me.  But  since  sin  is  in  the 
world,  and  we  are  here,  we  may  well  delight  to 
remember  that  deliverance  from  the  bitterness  of 
the  Cain-life  gives  unspeakable  relish  to  the 
obtaining  of  peace  through  redemption.  Who 
knows  what  deliverance  means  like  the  delivered? 

"  Earth  has  a  joy  unknown  to  heaven — 
The  new-born  peace  of  sins  forgiven; 
Tears  of  such  pure  and  deep  delight, 
Ye  angels,  never  dimmed  your  sight. 

But  I  amid  your  choirs  shall  shine, 
And  all  your  knowledge  shall  be  mine; 

Ye  on  your  harps  must  learn  to  hear 
A  sacred  chord  that  mine  shall  bear." 

Now,  let  us  stand  upon  another  rung  of  this 
ladder,  and  look  upon  redemption  from  the  stand- 
point of  that  man  whose  heart  yearns  with  the 
blessed  impulses  of  that  first  effort  of  self-sur- 
render called  penitence.  Have  you  ever  been 
there  ?  There  would  be  so  many  more  strong 
triumphant  Christians  in  the  world  to-day  had 
they  started  out  in  the  way  by  radically  repenting 
of  their  sins.  It  takes  the  dark  background  of 
the  storm  to  bring  out  the  rainbow  in  its  beauty, 
and  it  takes  the  full  recognition  of  the  self -life  to 
bring  out  redemption  in  its  beauty.  Have  you 
ever  been  awakened  to  the  conception  of  wrong 
in  your  soul  ?  Have  you  ever  really  felt  how 
many  things  there  are   surely    characteristic  of 


112  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Christ  which  you  would  feel  humiliated  to  have  as 
characteristic  of  you  ?  Has  the  vastness  of  the 
soul  been  opened  to  your  view  until  it  seems  full 
of  great  mountain  peaks  and  chasms  and  storms 
and  quiet  nooks  and  corners  where  lesser  passions 
lurk,  and  whole  prairies  of  thorns  and  briers  and 
poisonous  weeds,  and  great  centers  of  selfish  fire 
which  upon  occasion  belch  out  as  if  fighting  every 
approacher  ?  Have  you  ever  come  to  say,  '  'I  do 
not  know  myself,  search  me,  O  God  ?  "  Have 
you  ever  noticed  how  at  one  moment  your  heart 
is  as  tender  as  that  of  an  infant  cooing  upon  the 
bosom  of  its  mother  and  the  next  so  obdurate 
that  it  reminds  you  of  a  vicious  devil,  and  have 
you  said,  the  record  of  my  past  keeps  living  on 
and  I  am  here  a  sinner,  to  go  back  I  can  not? 
Within  me  is  condemnation  and  guilt.  To  go 
forward  longer  as  I  am,  how  dare  I,  but  my  feet 
are  slipping,  slipping,  as  if  time  had  been  frozen 
smoothe,  and  my  heart  is  cold  and  hard.  Then 
and  there,  O,  bless  the  day,  then  and  there  broke 
upon  your  vision  the  memory  of  the  cross  and 
you  said,  Jesus  will  save  me. 

A  lost  soul  hovering  between  two  worlds ;  ever 
since  your  babyhood  you  had  proclaimed  by  every 
action  that  you  were  a  lost  being.  In  those  earlier 
days  you  knew  not  whether  to  feel  the  kitten's 
back  or  the  fire,  to  drink  poison  or  water,  to  creep 
on  the  rug  or  out  in  the  snow,  to  smile  or  cry.  You 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  113 

sought  to  walk  and  fell.  As  the  years  went  on  every- 
day upset  a  score  or  more  of  conclusions  formerly 
made.  As  a  young  man  you  stood  at  the  forks  of 
the  road  and  sighed  again  and  again  to  know 
whether  to  be  a  mechanic  or  a  farmer  or  to  en- 
gage in  some  profession.  Perhaps  you  have  been 
at  mid-age  sitting  with  your  cheerful  family  about 
the  Thanksgiving  table  and  before  one  little  year 
has  gone  round  you  sit  weeping  in  deepest  sor- 
row because  she  is  lost  to  your  home,  the  great 
loving  heart  of  the  family  called  by  the  most 
blessed  name  of 'all  earthly  names,  "mother." 
Will  you  invest  in  this  line  of  business  or  in  that, 
will  you  cherish  this  trend  of  thought  even  about 
religion,  or  will  you  cherish  'that,  or  perhaps  you 
have  come  to  old  age  and  your  sight  has  failed 
you,  you  can  not  see  the  path,  you  carry  a  stick 
in  your  hand  to  help  you  feel  the  way,  your  dull 
hearing  will  not  warn  you  of  approaching  danger, 
and  if  you  sit  in  the  door  of  your  home  the  very 
cricket  on  the  curb  may  become  a  burden  to  your 
soul,  the  white  locks  fall  over  your  wrinkled  fore- 
head, you  are  a  pilgrim  journeying  somewhere, 
the  breath  of  eternity  is  upon  your  brow,  and  you 
know  not  the  way.  Lost,  lost,  lost!  But  hearken, 
Jesus  hath  spoken,  "I  am  the  way." 

O,  the  consciousness  of  a  condemned  soul.  He 
has  squandered  ability,  he  has  depreciated  the 
Gospel,  he   has   shut   out    the    light,   and  what 


114  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

does  he  know  of  surrender;  his  heart  has 
rushed  to  the  opposite  side  from  that  of  the 
angel-life.  He  fears  eternity,  would  that  he 
feared  himself.  Have  you  been  there,  and 
have  you  out  of  this  condemnation  looked 
unto  the  merciful  Redeemer  until  deeper 
and  still  deeper  were  the  feelings  of  grief  at  the 
thought  of  having  caused  him  so  terrible  a  sor- 
row, only  to  be  rewarded  with  the  sweet  assur- 
ance of  forgiveness — a  great,  free,  plentiful,  holy 
forgiveness  ?  Pardon  will  often  cause  the  culprit 
who  receives  it  to  faint  in  his  cell.  This  pardon 
which  Jesus  gives  causes  the  culprit  to  sing  as  he 
goes  at  large.  When  a  person  is  pardoned  he  is 
left  to  prove  himself  and  is  very  cautiously  taken 
back  into  the  trust  of  those  who  know  him,  but 
when  Jesus  pardons  a  sinner  he  is  taken  immedi- 
ately into  the  family  and  given  the  confidence  of 
the  household,  adopted  as  the  child  of  God  and 
promised  an  inheritance  of  infinite  love;  the  lost 
is  found,  the  dead  is  alive. 

Have  you  seen  redemption  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  penitent  ?  Have  you  looked  at  Calvary 
through  such  doors  as  these?  The  angels  may 
well  rush  in  now  and  express  their  joy  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  for 
they  never  saw  redemption  from  beneath.  The 
angels  said  he  went  forth  to  save  them,  but  I  have 
said  he  came  to  save  me.     They  said  he  is  theirs, 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  115 

but  I  have  said  he  is  mine.  They  say  < '  unto  you 
is  born  a  Saviour,"  but  the  poor  human  leper 
cries,  "if  thou  wilt  thou  can'st  make  me 
clean."  They  say  behold  him  go,  but  we  can 
say  behold  him  come.  They  look  off  upon  the 
scene  with  holy  enthusiasm,  but  the  scene  is 
within  me,  and  the  enthusiasm,  too,  for  I  needed 
redemption  and  I  got  it.  To  be  a  man  born  in 
sin  and  redeemed  is  to  know  and  experience  of  the 
love  of  the  Infinite,  high  above  that  which  even 
angels  know  from  actual  experience.  And  here 
we  not  only  see  redemption,  but  we  feel  it.  The 
first  dawnings  of  benevolence  have  come  into  our 
souls  as  we  repented  and  the  new  life  is  already 
blessedly  begun. 

"  Oh  glory  to  His  name  and  His  wondrous  love  proclaim, 

I'll  shout  His  praise  on  high; 
I'll  sing  redeeming  love  to  the  shining  hosts  above, 

And  behold  His  face  in  glory  by  and  by." 

Still  another  rung  of  the  ladder  invites  us. 
Let  us  step  higher  and  view  redemption  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  new  man  in  Christ.  May  we  have 
the  thoroughly  surrendered  will  and  the  clear 
heart-vision  as  we  look  upon  this  wonderful 
theme  from  this  wonderful  standpoint.  Lie  down 
in  your  hammock  at  night  when  the  summer  sky 
is  clear  and  you  would  think  that  if  you  were  high 
up  in  the  air  you  could  walk  from  star  to  star 
and  from  planet  to  planet  and  that  the  distance 


116  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

from  one  star  to  another  would  be  all  too  short 
for  your  steps.  But  rise  and  go  aloft  in  the 
region  of  planets  and  stars,  or  else  with  a  tele- 
scope bring  the  planets  and  stars  within  clearer 
view,  and  you  will  see  that  what  appeared  to  you 
as  a  short  step  is  like  the  distance  across  a  con- 
tinent. So  when  Christ  has  come  into  our  lives 
and  we  have  turned  away  from  the  old  self-life  to 
God  it  all  appears  different  to  us.  We  enter  into 
fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ.  Mark  that  word 
fellowship.  The  very  same  spirit  which  is  in 
Jesus  becomes  the  spirit  which  moves  us  to  our 
activities,  we  live  the  redemptive  life.  A  young 
man  got  his  hand  hurt  in  a  corn  shelling  machine, 
and  the  physician  informed  the  friends  after  am- 
putating the  hand  that  it  would  be  necessary  to 
graft  the  wound.  So  the  pastor  of  the  church 
where  he  attended  and  the  teacher  of  the  village 
school  and  others  contributed  from  their  arms 
four  hundred  grafts  of  living  flesh.  The  grafts 
were  applied  and  the  young  man  recovered. 
These  friends  had  fellowship  with  his  sufferings. 
And  we  are  to  enter  into  the  fellowship  with  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  just  as  these  friends  did  with 
the  sufferings  of  this  young  man.  Christ  suffered 
because  of  his  great  love.  They  sympathized 
with  the  young  man's  pain,  we  are  rather  to  sym- 
pathize with  Christ's  great  principles.  And  this 
is  what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian.     We  are  to  go 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  117 

out  with  Christ  borne  on  by  his  great  love  to 
seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  This  task  of  recon- 
structing the  race  by  defeating  the  self-life  and 
bringing  in  the  Christ-life  will  never  cease  until 
the  complete  victory  arrives,  and  every  Christian 
man  enlists  as  a  Christian,  receiving  this  great 
commission  in  his  soul;  and  just  as  Christ 
presents  himself  to  Calvary  we  are  to  pre- 
sent ourselves  living  sacrifices  unto  God. 
The  Jewish  idea  was  to  kill  the  sacrifice, 
but  the  Christian  idea  since  Christ  has  died  and 
risen  from  the  dead  is  to  have  the  sacrifice  alive. 
We  are  supposed  to  be  enlisted  in  the  very  front 
of  a  battle,  to  be  one  with  Jesus  Christ.  '  'Unto 
you  it  is  given  not  only  to  believe  on  him, 
but  also  to  suffer."  The  same  work  is  on 
his  heart  to-day  as  that  which  was  on  his 
heart  when  he  announced  the  finished  atone- 
ment. It  must  be  applied,  and  by  the  Holy 
Spirit's  help  we  are  to  apply  it.  When  I  prayed 
as  a  penitent  I  said,  God  be  merciful  to  me,  but 
when  I  pray  to-day  I  enter  into  his  fellowship 
which  adds,  God  be  merciful  to  them.  How 
quickly  that  prayer  finds  a  place  upon  the  lips  of 
the  new-born  soul.  How  little  we  knew  when  we 
first  prayed  that  prayer  for  personal  deliverance 
that  we  should  take  in  every  Hindoo  and  every 
Japanese  and  every  Chinaman  and  every  inhabit- 
ant of  every   island  and  on   every  sea  into  our 


118  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

cry,  since  Christ  is  taking  us  all  into  his  great 
redemption,  and  how  few  of  the  greater  weak- 
nesses of  our  character  were  definitely  understood 
in  that  first  hour.  Some  of  these  have  since  been 
recognized  and  cured  until  we  find  ourselves  say- 
ing. Lord  thou  didst  forgive  me  fully  and 
freelv  at  that  time,  but  now  I  find  it  means  a 
million-fold  more  than  I  thought  it  did;  while 
thy  forgiveness  has  never  been  cancelled,  I 
would  fain  have  it  reasserted  that  thou  mightest 
see  in  the  very  motions  of  my  soul  how  much 
better  I  appreciate  what  it  means  to  have  sin  for- 
given than  I  did  at  that  time.  We  see  sin  more 
as  Christ  saw  it  now.  O,  could  I  but  pick  up 
somewhere  one  nail  which  I  certainly  knew  had 
pierced  the  palm  of  my  blessed  Redeemer  on  the 
cross,  how  I  would  kiss  it  and  weep  over  it  and 
fold  it  close  within  my  palms  and  say,  '  'Let  me 
wound  myself  with  this,  if  perhaps  some  scratch 
of  the  nail  over  a  vein  might  cause  me  to  bleed 
against  that  same  thing  against  which  his  blood 
rushed  for  me."  Does  some  one  say  I  fear  that 
the  human  heart  could  not  bear  the  intense  fel- 
lowship with  Christ  of  which  we  are  speaking,  it 
would  seem  to  be  suicidal.  How  mistaken,  my 
friend;  it  is  not  suicidal,  it  is  resurrection.  Just 
as  the  self-life  dies  the  Christ-life  comes  in.  We 
are  debtors  everywhere  to  humanity  with  Christ, 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  119 

and  we  are  invited  into  the  struggle,  and  the  honor 
involved  in  it  no  tongue  can  tell. 

When  God  created  these  worlds  it  was  an  easy- 
act  of  his  power. 

<'He  spake  and  it  was  done,"  "The  earth 
showeth  his  handiwork^''  says  the  Psalmist, 
as  if  it  were  a  task  of  knitting  or  some 
delicate  work;  but  when  he  came  to  re- 
deem humanity,  or  better  when  he  came 
to  re-create  humanity,  he  is  represented  as 
poor,  and  sighing,  and  groaning,  and  weep- 
ing, and  weary,  and  dying — and  behold  he 
lives  again.  The  prophet  had  cried  out,  "Make 
bare  thine  arm,  Oh,  Lord,"  and  it  was  no  longer 
handiwork. 

Into  that  first  act  of  creation  we  were 
not  invited.  God  formed  the  lilies  and  God 
made  the  waters  and  all  the  forms  of  beauty  and 
the  whirling  maze  of  worlds  without  any  sugges- 
tion of  our  helping,  but  when  the  greater  act 
occurred,  when  the  appeal  could  be  made  to  the 
highest  motives  that  could  inspire  a  human  act  or 
glorify  a  human  destiny,  then  he  said,  come  in 
and  share  it.  Be  redeemers  with  me,  take  up 
your  cross  and  follow.  When  shall  we  once  learn 
the  lesson  of  holy  greatness  and  of  deathless 
worth  ?  Painters  have  caused  people  to  sit 
wrapt  by  the  hour  in  the  presence  of  their  pro- 
ductions and  in  some  cases  to  weep  and  resolve 


120  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

for  better  living  then  and  there.  Michael 
DeMunkacsy's  great  picture,  "Christ  before 
Pilate "  is  said  to  have  broken  the  heart  of  a 
sailor.  He  resolved  to  give  up  drink  and  sin  no 
more.  I  had  a  friend  wh©  stood  amid  the  throng 
of  people  looking  off  upon  that  picture.  He  is  a 
well  balanced  man,  but  his  attention  became  so 
riveted  upon  the  incident  it  represented  that  as 
he  fixed  his  eyes  upon  the  mob  calling  for  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ  he  called  out,  ' '  Here  stop 
that."  Oh,  if  we  could  but  have  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  in  the  heart  of  the  church  to-day  men  and 
women  would  feel  the  power  of  his  presence  and 
really  see  it  as  they  see  the  artist's  dream  in  the 
pictures.  What  a  mighty  revival  of  Christliness 
would  come  down  upon  the  peoples  and  what  a 
spirit  of  great  tenderness  and  benevolence  would 
be  awakened  everywhere,  until  the  feelings  of 
Paul  would  find  response  in  millions  of  hearts  in 
our  day  and  our  lives  would  be  in  accord  with 
those  great  full  words,  ' '  For  me  to  live  is  Christ. " 
Verily  the  Christian  is  a  Christ-i-an.  We  are 
the  continuation  of  the  Christ  plan  and  of  the 
Christ-life.  We  have  the  very  same  thing  to  do 
and  we  are  to  do  it  according  to  the  same  outline 
of  action  and  inspired  by  the  same  great  motive. 
A  little  boy  lifted  his  shining  face  at  the  break- 
fast table  one  morning  and  said  to  his  father,  who 
was  a  very  thorough  Christian  minister,  "Well, 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  121 

papa,  if  they  were  to  write  a  new  Bible  now  they 
would  put  mamma's  name,  and  your  name,  and 
sister's  name  and  our  preacher's  name  and  my 
name  in  it,  wouldn't  they  ?"  The  father  inquired 
to  find  out  exactly  what  the  little  child  meant, 
when  he  explained  that  the  names  of  the  people 
to-day  would  be  in  the  book  instead  of  such 
names  as  Peter,  John  and  Paul  and  Dorcas.  See 
how  that  child  detected  the  meaning  of  the 
Christian  religion.  We  ought  to  be  the  Bible  of 
to-day,  so  that  if  the  record  of  to-day  were  written 
down  it  should  as  truly  be  the  divine  record  as 
that  contained  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Let 
us  keep  to  our  programme.  Here  it  is,  ^ '  The 
spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  because  he  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor, 
he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  cap- 
tives and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set 
at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord. " 

I  will,  I  must  if  possible  enter  into  fellowship 
with  this  redemptive  plan. 

Why,  the  African  village  at  the  World's  Fair  in 
Chicago  was  peopled  by  some  genuine  Africans 
whose  tribe  has  the  following  very  interesting 
custom.  The  boys  of  the  surrounding  community 
join  the  tribe  upon  their  own  choice  and  take  rank 
in  the  tribe  according  to  merit  as  racers  or  hunt- 
ers, etc.     At  a  convenient  season  of  the  year  the 


132  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

boys  are  sent  out  into  the  hills  to  compete  in 
races,  marksmanship  and  other  athletic  deeds. 
While  there  they  are  addressed  by  some  of  the 
most  supple  of  the  older  men  of  the  tribe  on  how 
to  shoot  and  run  and  dodge,  and  similar  pursuits ; 
then,  when  the  day  comes  for  tribe- joining,  all 
who  desire  to  join  are  placed  in  a  company  to- 
gether and  they  are  bidden  to  take  their  rank  ac- 
cording to  their  standing  in  the  games.  The  best 
athlete  is  first,  the  second  best,  second,  and  so  on 
down  the  line.  Now,  they  are  to  bear  the  mark 
or  scar  of  their  rank,  and  this  is  produced  by  a 
deep  gash  made  in  the  back  of  the  boy.  The 
boy  at  the  foot  of  the  line  receives  the  gash  low 
down  on  the  back,  but  the  boy  at  the  head  of  the 
line  is  gashed  up  near  the  head.  An  African  who 
in  his  boyhood  had  joined  the  tribe,  entered  the 
African  village  at  the  World's  Fair.  He  had 
been  educated  in  America  and  was  dressed  in 
American  style,  but  he  had  not  forgotten  the  dia- 
lect of  his  own  tribe.  Entering  the  village  he 
began  to  converse  with  the  natives.  They  en- 
quired about  his  birthplace  and  tribe  until  he 
told  them  that  he  was  a  Prince  of  the  tribe.  They 
immediately  asked  if  he  wore  the  scars,  and  when 
he  said  he  did,  two  or  three  of  those  Africans 
rushed  forward  and  thrust  their  hands  down  un- 
der his  collar,  then  quickly  fell  down  before  him 
to  do  him  homage.     They  had  felt  the  scar  and 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  123 

they  knew  his  rank.  The  lesson  is  evident. 
High  rank  meant  high  scars,  but  any  kind  of 
rank  meant  scars  of  some  kind.  So  here  Christ 
would  have  followers  who  are  enlisted  with  the 
idea  of  suffering  with  him  and  of  bearing  the 
marks  of  the  King. 

Heaven  will  not  be  a  nursery  for  the  feeble. 
When  God  marshalls  his  great  hosts  for  review 
you  may  hear  it  said,  '•  These  are  they  who  came 
up  out  of  great  tribulation."  What  if  Jesus  should 
stand  yonder  in  visible  form  and  say  to  us, 
<'Come  children,  draw  near  and  converse  with 
me."  We  draw  near  and  he  tells  us  that  he  would 
have  us  talk  over  redemption  with  him.  Could 
we  take  part  in  the  conversation?  Could 
we  reach  a  single  strain  of  the  theme?  Would 
there  be  any  real  interest  in  it  from  your  stand- 
point and  mine?  If  not,  then  I  fear  that  the  cen- 
tral and  all-embracing  theme  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion has  never  sufficiently  interested  us  to  charm 
away  our  mean  self-life,  nor  have  we  realized  suf- 
ficiently our  high  calling  to  see  that  we  are  to 
have  fellowship  with  the  Son  of  God. 

We  c£.n  not  be  possessed  of  that  refining  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  needs  of  humanity  which  is  so  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  humanity  and  true  success 
in  every  undertaking,  unless  we  are  in  actual  fel- 
lowship with  Jesus  himself.  We  must  see  Jesus 
in  the  poorest  and  worst.     Not  that  the  worst 


124  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

love  him  and  please  him,  but  that  help  to  them  is 
help  to  him.      "Ye  did  it  mi  to  me." 

And  now  let  us  take  our  position  looking  off 
upon  the  view  of  redemption  which  must  have 
been  in  the  mind  of  the  Redeemer  himself.  '  'We 
reckon,"  said  one  of  the  fathers  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  "that  a  man  must  be  exceedingly  benev- 
olent when  he  sits  down  to  devise  how  he  can  best 
distribute  his  goods  among  others."  Jesus  comes, 
saying,  all  this  is  voluntary,  I  come  to  do  the 
Father's  will  and  to  lay  down  my  life. 

"Jesus  my  Saviour  to  Bethlehem  came, 
Born  in  a  manger  to  sorrow  and  shame, 
Oh,  it  was  wonderful,  blest  be  his  name, 
Seeking  for  me,  for  me. 

Jesus  my  Saviour  on  Calvary's  tree 
Paid  the  great  price  and  my  soul  is  set  free, 

Oh,  it  was  wonderful,  how  could  it  be. 
Dying  for  me,  for  me." 

It  is  a  chosen  plan,  a  favored  lot.  What  benev- 
olence there  must  be  in  the  heart  of  one  who  de- 
vises how,  when  and  where  to  lay  down  his  life 
for  sinners  and  give  them  an  inheritance  of 
boundless  wealth.  He  gave  his  best  to  bring  us 
to  our  best.  It  is  his  very  life.  What  valor  is 
to  the  brave  man,  what  muscle  is  to  the  sailor, 
what  the  father-feeling  is  to  the  father,  these 
faintly  picture  what  redemption  is  to  Christ.  We 
could  not  know  him  any  other  way  and  we  are  to 


CHRISTIAN  REDEMPTION  125 

have  this  life  in  us.  Eedeemed,  redeemed!  We 
were  reared  by  the  ministry  of  those  who  loved 
us.  Let  us  live  to  serve.  Let  us  suffer  to  cure 
others.  Let  us  die  that  we  may  live.  The  atone- 
ment of  Christ  is  a  perfect  atonement,  but  it 
needs  a  manward  application  and  we  are  invited, 
what  honor  is  in  it,  to  fill  up  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  which  are  behind  which  are  ready  to  fol- 
low. Oh,  my  soul,  this  is  life;  all  else  is  death. 
Saviour  divine,  be  thou  revealed  in  me.  Re- 
deemed !     Redeemed  1 1 


THE    REDEMPTION    OF 
SORROW. 


**  But  the  most  kingly  act  is  not  to  dominate,  but  to 
yield.  It  is  there  that  authority  and  dominion  ex- 
tend not  to  empire  but  to  self,'''' — H,  W,  Warren, 
S.  T.  D, 

•'  The  capacity  of  sorrow  belongs  to  our  grandeur,  and 
the  loftiest  of  our  race  are  those  who  have  had  the  pro- 
foundest  sympathies,  because  they  have  had  the  pro- 
f oundest  sorrow. " — Henry  Giles. 

"  For  godly  sorrow  worketTi  repentance  unto  salvation,  a 
repentance  which  hringeth  no  regret;  hut  the  sorrow  of  the 
world  worheth  death.''^ — II.  Corinthians  vii:  10.  (R.  V.) 

"Sadness  serves  but  one  end,  being  useful  only  in 
repentance,  and  hath  done  its  greatest  work,  not  when 
it  sighs  and  weeps,  but  when  it  hates  and  grows  careful 
against  sin;  but  cheerfulness  serves  charity,  fills  the 
soul  with  harmony,  and  makes  and  publishes  glorifica- 
tions of  GodL.'"— Jeremy  Taylor, 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW. 

TTow  broad  and  comprehensive,  and  if  under- 
■'■  ■'■  taken  by  any  other  than  a  divine  hand,  how 
daring  would  be  this  Christian  plan  of  dealing  with 
humanity.  Stoics  taught  some  of  the  external 
virtues  such  as  fidelity  and  heroism,  but  Jesus 
teaches  us  not  only  to  be  faithful  but  to  be  for- 
giving ;  not  only  to  be  heroic  but  to  be  gentle  and 
loving  and  merciful.  The  religion  of  Jesus  un- 
dertakes to  play  all  the  keys  of  the  whole  instru- 
ment. It  will  bring  out  the  music  of  the  whole 
orchestra,  hence  it  includes  sorrow  among  the 
subjects  of  its  blessed  ministry.  What  a  bene- 
diction it  is  that  we  can  feel  sorrow.  If  man 
were  capable  only  of  joy  he  would  be  like  a  violin 
with  one  string;  what  a  wearisome  exhibition  of 
monotony  would  such  a  person  be.  In  certain 
cases  of  insanity,  weeping  is  the  sign  of  ap- 
proaching recovery,  and  the  word  will  be  whis- 
pered among  the  nurses  and  attendants  concern- 
ing the  patient,  ''We  saw  a  tear  in  his  eye;  that 
man  will  yet  recover."  What  perfect  delight 
thrills  the  hearts  of  the  relatives  as  they  read  the 
new  letter  from  the  hospital  saying,  ' '  Your  friend 
has  been  seen  to  weep  a  little ;  recovery  is  more 
than  probable." 


130  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Joy  soars  high  and  bathes  its  wings  in  the  light 
and  sings  its  songs ;  but  sorrow  meanwhile  fol- 
lows the  long  shaft  and  digs  out  the  rich  nuggets 
of  ore.  How  could  we  enter  into  deepest  fellow- 
ship with  Jesus  were  we  not  capable  of  ' '  weeping 
with  those  that  weep."  There  is  a  heroism  in 
sorrow;  when  sorrow  is  of  the  right  quality  it 
dares  to  go  with  God  in  the  struggle.  Even  the 
Jewish  Psalmist  seems  to  have  believed  this  when 
he  said  ''My  tears,  are  they  not  in  thy  bottle." 
Dear  soul,  you  wept  so  bitterly ;  you  went  alone  and 
hid  yourself  away,  as  if,  since  there  was  but  one 
God  there  was  but  one  wounded  mortal  too,  and 
there  you  wept  and  sighed  and  prayed  while  your 
whole  being  was  heaving  like  a  ship  in  the  storm 
until  he  said,  "Peace  be  still,"  and  there  was  a 
great  calm.  May  be  there  was  great  courage  in 
that  hour. 

Mothers  weep  when  their  boys  leave  home. 
They  have  the  courage  to  weep;  they  know  that 
if  the  boys  will  be  true  in  the  midst  of  their 
enemies  they  can  succeed,  and  they  emphasize 
the  knowledge  upon  the  boy's  soul  with  weeping. 
''Blessed  are  they  that  mourn."  As  long  as  hu- 
manity can  rejoice  in  this  world  it  may  well  sor- 
row. There  is  no  general  conflict  between  laugh- 
ter and  tears,  between  joy  and  sorrow.  <' Sor- 
rowful yet  always  rejoicing,"  says  Paul. 

But  what  disgraceful  sorrow  we  have  suffered. 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW  131 

How  surely  there  seems  to  be  no  territory  of  the 
being  where  evil  has  not  caused  these  poisonous 
growths  to  come  up;  even  sorrow  has  become  de- 
generated sin.  There  is  a  sorrow  of  the  world — 
first  sorrow,  then  death;  a  blighting,  withering, 
slaying  sorrow. 

What  is  this  sorrow  of  the  world?  The  world 
in  the  days  when  Paul  wrote  would  naturally  be 
represented  by  Rome  or  Greece.  This  vast  un- 
christian community  based  its  life  upon  the  asser- 
tion of  the  individual.  The  modern  phrase, 
''Look  out  for  number  one."  would  have  exactly 
fitted  that  class  of  humanity.  Their  thought  was 
upon  themselves,  and  their  great  study  was  to 
defend  themselves  and  exalt  themselves,  and 
hence  their  sorrow  was  a  selfish  sorrow. 

This  same  spirit  is  common  to  humanity  since 
the  assertion  of  the  self -life  is  the  secret  of  hu- 
man trouble  and  human  failure,  hence  the  sorrow 
of  the  world  is  a  self-sorrow.  The  sorrow  of  the 
world  says,  I  am  injured,  poor  me,  how  I  strug- 
gle, how  I  suffer  !  This  was  the  difficulty  with 
Cain.  Instead  of  immediately  repenting  of  his 
sin,  "My  punishment  is  greater  than  I  can  bear." 
This  was  the  difficulty  with  the  rich  young  man 
who  came  to  Jesus  and  went  away  sorrowful.  I 
think  I  hear  him  say,  he  has  told  me  to  sell  all 
my  goods  and  give  to  the  poor,   my  lands,   my 


132  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

flocks,  my  houses,  my  vineyards.     Ah,  it  was  a 
sorrow  of  the  world. 

Now,  whenever  there  comes  a  question  between 
a  thing  and  a  character,   God  always  takes  the 
part  with  the  character.     Here,  in   the  case  of 
the   rich    young  man,   the  conflict  was  between 
gold  and  the  man.     Immediately  the  Lord  said, 
<'man  up,  gold  down."     The  same  is  true  in  the 
case   of    the   Gadarene   demoniac.     The   conflict 
there  is  between  the    pigs  and  the  man.      The 
Lord  immediately  says,    "man  up,  pigs  down." 
And  then,  when  man  is  permanently  established 
in  victory,  gold  is  represented  as  the  pavement 
of  his  feet  in  heaven.     This  rule  always   abides ; 
character  up,  things  down.     But  the  rich  young 
man   did  not  perceive  this.      His  sorrow  was  a 
self-sorrow.      "He  went  away  sorrowful,  for  he 
had  great  possessions."     No  man  ever  was  pinned 
under   a    railroad   wreck   more    truly  than  was 
that  young  man  pinned  under  his  possessions. 
He  had  his  heart  where  his  feet  ought  to  be,  upon 
the  earth.       John  Ruskin   says  that  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  mean  man  is  in  the  way  he  pro- 
nounces the  word  "I,"  and  the  characteristic  of 
the  great  man   is  in  the  way  he  pronounces  the 
word    "it."        The  sorrow  of  the  world  always 
speaks  of  self.     It  has  not  great  philanthropy,  it 
h  as  no  great  fund  of  helpfulness  to  feed  upon ;  it 
works  death ;  it  is  separate,  single,  exclusive,  kill- 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW  133 

ing.  There  are  people  from  all  about  us  who 
have  gone  to  premature  graves  through  this  aw- 
ful blast,  and  who  can  tell  the  great  number  of 
deadly  vices  it  breeds  in  its  own  walled  up  nest? 

But  now  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  godly  sor- 
row, which  is  said  to  work  repentance — a  repent- 
ance that  needeth  not  to  be  repented  of.  The 
sorrow  of  the  world  savors  of  the  world;  godly 
sorrow  savors  of  God.  The  sorrow  of  the  world 
says,  " I  am  wronged  " ;  godly  sorrow  says,  ''He 
is  wronged."  The  sorrow  of  the  world  says,  "I 
suffer";  godly  sorrow,  "  He  hath  suffered."  The 
one,  "I  am  abused";  the  other,  "He  is  mal- 
treated." The  one,  ' '  My  poor  heart  " ;  the  other, 
<'His  broken  heart."  These  waters  of  Marah 
flow  very  close  to  the  mercy  seat,  and  soon  the 
soul  mellowed  by  this  kind  of  sorrow  will  be  heard 
saying,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner,"  laying 
the  emphasis  upon  the  word  "sinner  "  very  much 
more  than  upon  the  word  "me,"  for  godlj  sorrow 
worketh  repentance. 

My  brother,  have  you  ever  felt  this  kind  of  sor- 
row? Has  your  soul  ever  awakened  sufficiently  to 
sa  y,  "  God  has  been  wronged,  Christ  has  been  slain 
and  humanity  has  been  injured  through  my  willful- 
ness and  sin?"  Have  you  ever  had  moral  ambition 
enough  to  explore  the  Infinite  nature  far  enough  to 
find  how  many  scars  you  have  made  in  his  affection 
through    the  outgoings    of    his   mercy  for  you? 


134  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Look,  look  upon  him.  See  him  weep.  Hear  him 
plead.  Note  the  steady  greatness  in  the  strain 
of  his  teaching.  Hear  his  warning;  feel  his 
heart-throbs.  Behold,  this  is  your  Creator!  This 
is  your  Saviour!  This  is  your  King,  and  of  this 
one  you  are  an  offspring.  Oh,  soul,  did  you  ever 
with  godly  sorrow  beg  the  divine  pardon  ?  It  is 
a  great  thing  to  repent  of  sin. 

Sometime  ago  in  one  of  my  meetings  I  ap- 
proached a  man  from  Chicago  and  said  to  him, 
<*  My  brother,  have  you  given  your  life  to  Jesus  ?" 
He  replied,  'No.  sir,  I  have  not,  and  what  is 
more  I  do  not  mean  to;  I  tell  you  I  do  not  be- 
lieve what  you  preached  to-night.  You  taught 
that  a  man  must  get  down  in  the  dust  before  G-od 
in  order  to  be  saved,  and  I  tell  you  I  will  not  do 
it.  I  think  too  much  of  myself  for  any  such 
humiliation,  and  I  do  not  believe  in  it."  "Beg 
your  pardon,  my  friend, ' '  said  I,  ' '  you  misunder- 
stood my  teaching.  I  do  not  say  that  a  man 
would  be  required  to  get  down  in  the  dust  in 
order  to  be  a  Christian,  but  I  mean  to  say  that 
you  are  now  down  in  the  dust,  and  one  of  the 
first  steps  toward  becoming  a  Christian  is  to 
rise  high  enough  to  let  the  light  shine  on  you 
so  that  you  shall  see  the  dust  which  soils  you. " 

Eepentance  is  not  going  down  into  the  valley, 
repentance  is  not  going  down  at  all,  repent- 
ance is   rising  up.     When  one  is  ascended  high 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW  135 

enough  to  see  how  God  has  been  wronged  by  him, 
until  he  desires  and  determines  to  ask  forgive- 
ness for  his  fruitless  and  injurious  life,  then  he 
becomes  a  true  penitent.  Repentance  is  really 
the  first  dawning s  of  benevolence.  The  very  first 
step  in  the  Christian  life  is  a  step  into  greatness. 
O,  for  the.  blessing  of  godly  sorrow.  Fellow  sin- 
ner, may  it  come  into  your  soul  to-day.  I  do  not 
ask  you  to  weep;  that  would  only  be  incidental, 
but  may  heaven  give  to  the  very  deeps  of  your 
being  a  mighty  appreciation  of  the  goodness  of 
God  and  your  mfluence  upon  your  fellows  until 
you  shall  be  sorry  that  they  have  been  wronged. 
When  Col.  H.  H.  Hadley  knelt  in  the  Water 
Street  Mission  and  prayed  for  forgiveness  he  was 
a  drunken  newspaper  man.  He  says,  ' '  That 
night  I  was  two  hundred-odd  pounds  of  sin  and 
beer."  But  when  he  began  to  pray  he  found  him- 
self saying,  "dear  Jesus."  He  says,  "This  was 
altogether  new  to  me,  to  call  my  Saviour  dear 
Jesus.  Then  I  said,  O  dear  Jesus  let  me  bear 
this  terrible  appetite  for  strong  drink  for  thee 
who  hast  borne  my  sins  forme."  Col.  Hadley  did 
not  think  to  ask  that  the  appetite  might  be  taken 
away,  this  he  might  well  have  done.  But  when 
there  came  genuine  repentance  he  would  fain  en- 
dure the  awful  trial  for  such  a  Saviour  as  this. 
Start  here  my  brother,  right  in  the  day-dawn  of 
benevolence.     Sound   the  depths   of   your  being 


136  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

and  see  if  you  can  not  find  it  within  you  to  say, 
''Father  I  have  sinned,  forgive  me." 

Glorious  John  Hunt  says  that  the  Fiji  Islanders 
would  faint  under  the  awful  load  of  their  own 
guilt  when  they  saw  it.  When  John  Hunt  went 
among  these  poor  cannibals  in  1838,  girls  were 
sold  for  seven  dollars  each  that  they  might  be 
eaten.  John  Hunt  preached  Christ  to  them  until 
they  saw  the  awfulness  of  their  practices.  Under 
his  messages  they  would  faint  and  revive,  and  faint 
and  revive  and  bewail  their  awful  unrighteousness. 
You  could  not  buy  a  human  being  to-day,  in  the 
Fiji  Islands,  for  seven  millions  of  dollars.  But 
these  poor  tribes  had  no  Bible.  You  and  I  have 
been  surrounded  with  the  richest  and  the  great- 
est teachings  that  have  ever  fallen  upon  human 
ears.  They  have  been  stated,  they  have  been 
sung,  and  with  the  very  pleadings  of  sacrifice 
they  have  been  pressed  upon  our  attention. 
Shall  we  not  drop  a  tear  or  two  of  genuine  re- 
pentance and  hate  the  old  self-life. 

"Who  sent  this  quilt  here,"  said  a  dying  soldier 
boy  to  the  nurse.  "  I  do  not  know,"  replied  the 
nurse,  "but  there  was  a  note  with  it  and  I  can 
find  out  who  sent  it."  "I  wish  you  might,"  said 
the  young  man.  The  nurse  retired  from  the  room 
and  upon  returning  found  him  intently  gazing  at 
one  patch  in  the  quilt.  ' '  Did  you  find  out  who 
sent  the  quilt  ?  "   said  he.     Then  the  nurse  read 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW  137 

the  name  at  the  bottom  of  the  note.  The  young 
man  burst  into  weeping  and  said,  "I  thought  so, 
I  thought  so;  I  knew  it  was  her.  I  knew  that 
that  patch  was  a  piece  of  my  mother's  dress." 
Then  drawing  it  close  to  his  lips  he  kissed  the 
patch  once  and  again,  saying,  ' '  G-od  forgive  me 
for  the  way  I  treated  my  mother.  Nurse,  you 
will  tell  mother,  won't  you,  that  I  asked  God  to 
forgive  me  before  I  died,  and  T  want  her  to  for- 
give me."  I  think  that  soldier  boy  was 
greater  ten-million-fold  that  minute  than  he  ever 
could  have  been  spurring  himself  on  in  some  bat- 
tle. We  never  can  be  genuine  Christians  unless 
we  have  been  genuine  penitents.  The  joy  of 
the  Lord  can  not  be  our  strength  unless  godly 
sorrow  has  been  our  tonic.  There  are  men  every- 
where who  have  never  begun  to  find  the  present 
possibilities  of  their  character  because  they  have 
never  known  a  great  sorrow.  The  smelting  has 
not  been  perfect  enough  to  bring  out  the  gold. 

A  father  brought  his  daughter  to  a  musical  in- 
structor for  voice  culture.  The  daughter  was 
asked  to  stand  upon  the  stage  in  a  large  hall  and 
sing.  The  father  and  instructor  stood  in  the  dis- 
tance to  estimate  her  effort.  "Well,"  said  the 
father,  "what  do  you  think  she  will  make  ?"  "I 
can  not  tell  you,"  answered  the  instructor,  "her 
voice  has  a  vast  compass  and  is  of  pure  tone.     I 


138  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

could  tell  you  better  what  she  would  make  if  I 
could  break  her  heart." 

Forgiveness  is  none  the  less  precious  because  it 
is  so  readily  offered.  How  boldly  we  come  and 
say,  "Father  forgive  me."  Do  we  consider  what 
it  costs  him  to  forgive  us?  We  speak  of  our 
sensitive  natures  and  say  that  the  errors  of  our 
fellow  men  rasp  against  our  souls  so  that  we  can 
hardly  endure  their  coarseness.  We  say  they  are 
not  kindred  spirits  with  us.  But  what  of  the 
holy  sensitiveness  of  him  whose  perfect  character 
was  never  stained  by  a  tinge  of  wrong  purpose  or 
of  wrong  doing.  Do  not  I  know  that  my  dullness 
and  daring  sinfulness  must  rasp  as  if  into  the 
very  quick  against  the  sensitive  nature  of  my 
Christ?  Out  of  that  nature,  while  amid  the 
lowest  surroundings,  came  forth  such  saying  as 
these,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart."  "Who- 
soever looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his 
heart,"  and  "I  am  the  truth."  When  Christ 
comes  to  save  your  soul  it  is  like  an  angel  reach- 
ing deep  into  the  mire  for  a  pearl.  And  I  do  not 
mean  here  the  soul  of  a  man  whose  habits  are  vile 
beyond  other  peoples,  I  mean  the  most  respect- 
able kind  of  a  sinner  who  slights  the  mercy  of 
heaven.  We  do  not  consider  it  so  very  wonderful 
that  the  man  who  was  lost  deep  in  drunkenness 
or  criminality  should  rejoice  with  exceeding  joy 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  SORROW  139 

because  his  sins  are  forgiven,  but  is  it  not  true 
that  the  man  who  has  been  saved  from  these 
things  ought  to  be  as  thankful  as  the  man  who 
has  been  saved  out  of  them  ? 

Does  some  one  say,  O  the  love  of  God  makes  it 
easy  for  him  to  forgive.  I  reply,  yes,  but  love  is 
not  insensible,  love  is  not  stupid,  love  is  not  un- 
true. But  with  full  recognition  of  the  sin,  with 
exact  estimate  of  its  vileness  and  in  perfect  con- 
sciousness of  all  that  it  has  cost  to  save  the  sin- 
ner, love  eagerly,  abundantly  pardons.  God's 
attitude  is  rather  the  attitude  of  truth  than  of 
resentment,  and  truth  is  not  thrust  down  when 
a  sinner  is  forgiven,  it  is  asserted,  upheld,  hon- 
ored, glorified.  That  struggle  of  the  truth  in  the 
face  of  our  moral  falsehood  broke  the  heart  of 
Jesus  Christ.   Brother,  it  was  for  thee  and  for  me. 

Why  wait  for  fires  or  floods  or  sickness  or  per- 
secution to  break  your  heart;  is  there  not  appeal 
enough  in  the  goodness  of  God?  Does  not  the 
tenderness  of  his  voice  within  your  soul  make  you 
tremble  with  sorrow  that  you  have  so  long  re- 
jected it?  If  I  must  be  constrained  by  any  influ- 
ence, let  it  be  such  an  influence  as  God's  good- 
ness, or  God's  love.  Now,  even  now,  may  the 
icy  heart  of  your  winter  melt  away  and  the  new 
world  spring  into  existence,  even  a  world  where 
sorrow  is  unselfish. 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING. 


•'  We  deceive  ourselves,  doubtless,  in  this  way,  im- 
agining that  because  we  have  the  whole  Scriptures,  and 
are  conversant  with  all  their  great  truths,  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  necessarily  working  in  us.  We  need  a  baptism 
of  the  spirit  as  much  as  the  apostles  did  at  the  time  of 
Christ's  resurrection. " — Bowen. 

••It  would  be  a  blessed  day  which  should  witness  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  anew  upon  the  whole  Christ- 
ian church.  But  to  ask  for  this  would  be  to  ask  for 
uncovenanted  grace.  For  the  majority  of  Christians  are 
not  in  a  receptive  condition.  Vessels  must  be  emptied 
of  earth  before  they  can  be  filled  with  gold.  There 
must  be  an  intense  thirst  before  Jesus  will  give  these 
living  waters." — Rev.  Daniel  Steele,  S.  T.  D. 

"  When  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  will  send  unto 
you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  which  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  Father,  he  shall  hear  witness  of  me;  and 
ye  also  shall  hear  ivitness,  hecause  ye  have  been  with  me 
from  the  heginning.  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you, 
that  ye  should  not  he  made  to  stumble.  They  shall  put  you 
out  of  the  synagogues,  yea,  the  hour  cometh  thatwhosoever 
Uilleth  you  shall  think  that  he  offereth  service  unto  Ood. 
And  these  things  will  they  do  hecause  they  have  not  knoivn 
the  Father  nor  me.  But  these  things  have  I  spoken  unto 
you,  that  when  their  hour  is  come  ye  may  remember  them, 
how  that  I  told,  you.  And  these  things  I  said  not  unto  you 
from  the  hcginniiig  hecause  I  was  with  you.  But  now  1 
go  imto  him  that  seiit  me;  and  none  of  you  asketh  me. 
Whither  goest  thouf  But  hecause  I  have  spoken  these 
things  unto  you,  sorroiv  hath  filled  your  heart.  Nevertheless 
I  tell  you  the  truth;  it  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away, 
for  if  1  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you; 
but  if  I  go  I  will  send  him  unto  you. " 

—John  xv:  26,  27;  xvi:  4-7.  (R.  V.) 


THE  DIVINE.  UNFOLDING. 

"\  1  7ho  can  imagine  the  difficulties  to  be  encoun- 
tered when  God  proceeded  to  unfold  the 
secrets  of  His  pure  nature  and  the  privileges  which 
he  would  grant  to  men,  of  high  and  rich  commun- 
ion with  himself  in  such  days  as  those  of  Abel  and 
Enoch  and  Abraham.  For  we  must  not  forget 
that  the  influences  of  more  perfectly  stated  truths 
concerning  God  and  ourselves  have  affected  our 
parents,  and,  indeed,  all  civilization  to  such  a  vast 
extent  that  to  have  been  born  as  we,  in  these 
civilized  countries  of  the  world  and  in  this  age, 
was  to  be  started  out  in  life  with  an  almost  infi- 
nite profusion  of  opportunity  and  advantage. 

It  was  not  always  so.  See  behind  those  hills 
of  time,  yonder  in  the  distance,  those  darker  days. 
The  pillar  of  fire  has  not  yet  appeared.  The 
prophets'  souls  have  not  yet  borne  their  great, 
strong,  healthful  messages,  nor  has  a  live  coal  off 
the  altar  touched  their  lips.  The  psalmists  have 
not  yet  sung  of  Jehovah,  the  Shepherd,  Leader, 
King;  and  the  sweet,  holy  ministry  of  the  Son  of 
God  has  not  yet  broken  like  fragrant  incense 
upon  the  darkened  minds  and  sinful  hearts  of  the 
people.     It    were   difficult,    indeed,    to   estimate 


144  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

what  it  meant  to  unfold  the  things  of  God  out 
on  the  edges  of  those  centuries.  It  is  always 
difficult  to  put  great  truth  in  language;  it  must 
have  been  especially  difficult  to  put  the  things  of 
God's  glory  into  the  language  of  the  earlier  peo- 
ple, so  deeply  fallen  into  rebellion  against  Him. 
How  beautiful  the  unfolding. 

The  voice  of  God  is  heard  calling  for  his  lost 
child,  "Adam,  where  art  thou."  This  is  the 
great  starting  point  of  that  which  culminates 
later  on  this  earth,  in  the  expression  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  dwelling  amid  eager  welcomes  right  within 
the  soul  of  the  redeemed  creature — this  the  morn- 
ing star,  that  the  noon-day.  Let  us  trace  these 
unf oldings  that  we  may  the  better  see  how  impor- 
tant it  is  for  us  to  believe  with  deepest  purpose 
in  the  largest,  completest  unfolding  of  the  God- 
nature  to  man — the  Holy  Spirit. 

God  has  called  to  his  lost  child.  That  voice 
alone,  its  tones ;  how  they  must  have  stirred  the 
heart  of  Adam.  I  think  he  is  saying,  ' '  Will  he 
speak  to  me,  will  he  yet  speak  tome."  For  you 
know  these  early  people  (and  the  race  is  not  rid 
of  the  same  moral  defect  even  to-day)  feared  the 
voice  of  God,  and  when  he  spake  to  them  from 
Sinai  they  said,  ' '  Let  not  God  speak  with  us  lest 
we  die." 

Again,  he  appeals  to  the  patriarchs  and  calls 
every  man  to  be  a  priest  in  his  own  household;  the 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  145 

individual  and  the  family  are  brought  into  possi- 
ble communion  with  himself.  What  a  revelation 
this  must  have  been  to  these  early  people. 

Again,  the  law  is  given  amid  the  fears  of  the 
people;  the  words  are  uttered,  "Thoushalt"  and 
<'thou  shalt  not."      ''Now,"  I  think  men  say  to 
each  other  after  their  fear  has  subsided,  ' '  This  is 
very  plain;  we  understand;  we  must  not  kill;  we 
must  not  steal,  and  we  must  love  him."     What 
penitent  anxious  for  communion  with  his  God  and 
willing   to   make  his  life   righteous   before  him 
would  not  have  been  willing  to  say,  "  It  is  enough 
we  will  seek  to  obey ;  yea,  we  will  suffer  in  obedi- 
ence if  we  may  but  gain  the  favor  of  the  great 
Eternal, "  but  already  they  had  had  more  than  this. 
The  sacrifices  were  being  offered ;  great,  strong  an- 
nouncements of  godly  faith  were  being  made,  nor 
shall  they  cease,  for  the  Lord  continues  to  unfold 
his  nature  to  man,  expressing  himself  in  symbols 
and   tokens    and   certain   forms  of  worship  and 
service,  especially  in  better  places,  and  the  tab- 
ernacle is  made  after  his  own  designing.     Not  one 
family,  but  many  are  called  together  to  commune 
with  him,  and  in  the  forms  of  worship  the  unfold- 
ing of  his  own  thought  and  heart  become  more 
and  more  apparent  to  the  people,  while  from  the 
mercy-seat   in   the   holy   of     holies    beams   the 
Shekinah.     This  was  a  mysterious,  abiding  light, 
perhaps  not  unlike  the  sun-dog  in  the  sky,  still 


146  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

and  quiet,  but  radiant — beautiful  symbol  of  the 
presence  of  Him  of  whom  John  later  said,  ' '  God 
is  light." 

And  now  as  the  unfolding  of  his  nature  contin- 
ues, the  prophets  bear  witness,  the  kings  live  and 
die,  the  nations  grow  and  wane,  the  Psalmists 
sing,  the  priests  pray,  scenes  of  great  deliverance 
appear  as  pledges  of  covenants  made,  strong 
warnings  are  uttered  against  the  sins  of  the  na- 
tion, God's  people  are  taught  to  separate  them- 
selves from  the  idolaters  round  about  them,  while 
now  and  again  a  man  rises  baptized  with  great 
assurance,  saying,  ^^Thus  saith  the  Lord."  As 
if  to  say  he  who  called  for  his  lost  Adam  is  still 
calling. 

Then  the  light  broke  like  the  dawn  of  the 
morning  from  the  hills  and  the  brief  but  plain 
prophecy  of  Moses  began  to  come  into  its  fuller 
expression  of  meaning  upon  the  lips  of  Isaiah  and 
of  the  minor  prophets  concerning  the  com- 
ing deliverer.  It  must  have  been  like  a  feast  to 
the  soul  for  these  men  to  have  felt  impelled  to 
have  uttered  their  messages.  Take  the  youthful 
Isaiah,  scarcely,  if  quite,  out  of  his  teens,  utter- 
ing such  words  as  these,  "Unto us  a  child  is  born; 
unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall 
be  upon  his  shoulder;  and  his  name  shall  be 
called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  mighty  God, 
the  Everlasting  Father,   the    Prince   of    Peace. 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  147 

And  there  shall  come  forth  a  rod  out  of  the  stem 
of  Jesse,  and  a  branch  shall  grow  out  of  his  roots ; 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him, 
the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit 
of  counsel  and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge,  and 
of  the  fear  of  the  Lord ;  and  shall  make  him  of 
quick  understanding  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
he  shall  not  judge  after  the  sight  of  his  eyes, 
neither  reprove  after  the  hearing  of  his  ears.  But 
with  righteousness  shall  he  judge  the  poor,  and 
reprove  with  equity  for  the  meek  of  the  earth; 
and  he  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of 
his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall 
he  slay  the  wicked.  And  righteousness  shall  be 
the  girdle  of  his  loins  and  faithfulness  the  girdle 
of  his  reins." 

What  joy,  what  unspeakable  rapture  must  have 
ravished  the  hearts  of  these  men  amid  their  ordi- 
nary sorrows  when  they  uttered  such  words  as 
those.  But  behold,  O,  holy  wonder,  there  ap- 
pears that  one  from  above  born  of  Mary  in  Beth- 
lehem of  Judea.  The  people  call  him  Prophet, 
King,  Rabbi.  The  sin-stricken  woman  at  the 
well  of  Sychar  as  she  speaks,  keeps  expressing  his 
name  in  better  titles ;  first  she  calls  him  "sir," 
later  "prophet,"  then  telling  of  her  belief  in  the 
coming  Messiah  she  dares  to  say,  ' '  Can  this  be 
the     Christ? " 

He    appears     among    the   people,    poor    with 


148  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  poorest,  weary  with  the  weariest,  slandered 
and  opposed  with  the  most  persecuted,  teach- 
ing as  no  man  ever  taught,  fulfilling  the  law, 
living  a  divine  life  and  surely  though  slowly  be- 
coming the  evident  deliverer  of  the  people.  Now, 
G-od  has  unfolded  himself  as  so  intensely  sympa- 
thetic that  he  is  beside  us  in  our  babyhood,  him- 
self incarnate  as  a  little  child,  he  reclines  at  our 
dinner  tables,  he  takes  the  little  children  up  in  his 
arms  and  blesses  them,  he  heals  our  sicknesses, 
he  forgives  our  sins,  he  feeds  our  hungry,  he 
touches  our  dead  and  they  live.  Could  Abel  or 
Enoch  or  Abraham  have  seen  this  so  fully  ex- 
pressed as  the  people  of  the  day  of  his  appearing 
saw  it,  how  they  would  have  exulted. 

Immanuel,  Immanuel,  God  with  us.  And  sin- 
ners touch  him. 

But  this  is  not  enough ;  humanity  is  a  redeemed 
humanity  and  we  are  called  to  fellows/iip  with  the 
infinite  God,  in  eternal  years  destined  to  be  like  him 
and  to  glory  in  him,  yes,  and  to  express  through 
ceaseless  days  of  eternity  the  wealth  of  the  heart 
of  God.  Hence  Jesus  stands  forth  in  the  presence 
of  the  people  while  they  celebrate  Feast  of 
Tabernacles  at  Jerusalem,  the  very  city  where 
(3-od  had  unfolded  much  of  the  wealth  of  himself, 
in  the  design  of  the  great  temple  and  its  worship ; 
to  tell  the  people  of  the  coming,  greater  glory  yet 
to   break   upon    their    vision    and   enrich   their 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  149 

souls.  It  was  the  last  day  of  the  feast.  Offer- 
ings of  water  were  being  brought  from  Siloam 
and  presented  before  the  Lord.  Skins  and  jars 
well  filled  with  the  pure  liquid  were  handed  forth, 
and  appropriate  offerings  were  being  celebrated. 
He  looked  upon  it,  and  then  this  great  effort  of 
God  to  unfold  himself  to  humanity  brought  out 
the  larger  lesson  which  the  water  symbolized,  in 
these  words,  "If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come 
unto  me  and  drink,  he  that  believeth  on  me  as  the 
Scripture  hath  said  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow 
rivers  of  living  water. " 

Anon  he  continues  this  strain  of  announcement, 
telling  of  greater  things  to  come.  He  says,  ' '  I 
go  unto  my  Father  but  I  will  send  the  Comforter 
(the  Paraclete);  you  would  rejoice  if  you  love  me 
because  I  said  I  go  unto  the  Father,  for  if  I  go 
not  unto  the  Father  the  Comforter  will  not  come 
unto  you,  even  the  spirit  of  truth  whom  I  will 
send  unto  you  from  the  Father."  Now  observe, 
it  is  said  that  that  utterance  of  his  about  the 
water  at  the  feast  was  spoken  concerning  the 
Holy  Spirit.  These  are  the  words  which  follow 
it,  ' '  This  spake  he  of  the  Spirit  which  they  that 
believed  on  him  were  to  receive  for  the  Spirit 
was  not  yet  given  because  Jesus  was  not  yet 
glorified." 

Jesus  bids  his  people  tarry  for  the  coming  of 
the  Spirit.     God  had  things  to  tell  to  men  which 


150  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

they  could  not  bear  as  yet  and  God  had  things 
to  show  to  men  which  they  could  not  yet  endure. 
Jesus  is  "the  effulgence  of  G-od's  glory  and  the 
very  image  of  his  substance,"  but  the  unfolding 
can  be  made  more  expressive  and  can  enter  more 
deeply  into  the  heart-realization  of  humanity, 
hence  they  were  bidden  to  look  for  the  coming  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

And  now  the  day  has  broken  over  the  eastern 
city,  and  with  it  there  breaks  over  the  hearts  of  the 
male  and  female  followers  of  Jesus  assembled  in 
the  upper  room  at  Jerusalem,  the  light  of  the 
hitherto,  fullest,  brightest  expression  of  God  to 
humanity  ever  yet  witnessed. 

The  local  representation  of  God  in  Jesus  as  a 
man  among  us  has  been  withdrawn,  the  invisible 
expression  of  God  in  the  very  spirit  of  Jesus  him- 
self has  been  ushered  in.  It  is  a  new  day,  the 
Christian  idea  has  become  full-orbed  and  the  high 
noon  of  fellowship  with  the  great  Father  rests 
steadily  over  the  faithful  people,  with  the  prom- 
ise that  it  shall  rest  over  succeeding  centuries, 
until  the  Kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ  and 
he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.  Had  God  re- 
mained manifested  in  the  local,  visible  Christ,  in 
the  man  Jesus  how  different  all  would  be.  What 
pilgrimages  bound  for  Palestine  would  be  organ- 
ized by  the  thousand,  in  succession,  all  over  the 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  151 

earth.  What  weariness  and  sickness  and  death 
would  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  great  assemblies, 
what  poor  people  would  be  unable  to  provide  for 
the  trip.  What  strange  declining  of  the  great 
plan  would  appear  as  we  'would  tend  to  ap- 
proach Palestine  as  a  single  country,  rather 
than  looking  out  as  we  now  do,  upon  the  whole 
world  as  belonging  to  our  Christ.  He  is  no  less 
present,  unseen  than  seen.  As  he  said,  he  is 
with  us  alway.  His  incarnation  was  rather  a 
hiding  of  the  vaster  wealth  of  his  nature  behind 
a  veil  of  flesh. 

But  we  see  him  now  in  this  larger,  fuller,  com- 
pleter expression  of  the  hidden  wealth  and  glory 
of  his  nature.  O,  blessed  day  !  The  Pentecost ! 
The  unceasing  Pentecost,  the  unwithdrawn  pres- 
ence is  yours  and  mine,  he  shall  abide  with  you 
forever. 

Before  Jesus  had  yet  ascended  He  breathed 
upon  His  followers  saying,  ' '  Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Spirit  ?  "  Perhaps  they  were  incompetent  to  re- 
ceive Him  fully,  for  this  would  not  be  the  first 
time  He  had  corrected  their  slowness.  But  now  on 
this  Pentecost  day  his  breath  is  increased,  until 
there  is  the  sound  as  of  a  rushing,  mighty  wind, 
and  it  fills  all  the  place  where  they  are  as- 
sembled. There  is  life  in  that  wind,  and  God  is 
in  the  wind.  And  the  unfolding  of  His  nature  is 
so  correctly  perceived  by  the  people  that   they 


152  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

immediately  partake  of  the  sacrificial  spirit,  their 
sympathies  are  awakened  and  their  love  abomids. 
They  present  their  goods  and  divide  them,  prob- 
ably among  those  who  had  come  a  long  distance 
and  had  run  short  of  means.  Peter  explains  the 
incident,  assuring  them  that  this  accords  with  the 
promise  of  God  concerning  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  they  begin  to  proclaim  a  thorough  recovery 
from  iniquity  for  Jew  and  Gentile  alike,  the 
young  communion  takes  on  holy  life  and  new 
membership,  the  Lord  adding  daily  such  as  are 
being  saved.  Now,  lions,  nor  fires,  nor  stocks, 
nor  scourge,  nor  deep  dungeon  avail  to  affect 
their  ardor,  but  right  on  toward  death  they 
move  counting  it  all  joy  that  they  are  reckoned 
worthy  to  suffer  for  the  name  of  Jesus. 

And  this  unfolding  of  the  divine  nature  contin- 
ues in  our  day.  It  is  God's  tender  purpose  to  un- 
cover,  in  so  far  as  we  can  stand  the  gaze,  the  secret 
brilliancy  of  His  nature,  and  to  bring  us  as 
a  redeemed  people  to  that  condition  where  we  can 
truly  realize  the  fulness  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
And  the  highest,  purest,  grandest  expression  of 
God's  nature  to  man  is  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  No 
wonder  Peter  designated  the  day  in  which  he 
lived  <*  the  end  of  the  times."  (See  1  Peter  i:20 
R.  V.) 

This  blessed  unfolding  or  evolving  of  the 
Divine  is    such    a    distinct   characteristic  of  his 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDINO  153 

providence  that  we  may  well  study  it  a  little 
more  closely.  Take  the  Jewish  people,  they 
were  called  to  be  God's  peculiar  people  for  they 
were  made  the  guardians  of  His  revelation 
and  the  leaders  in  the  faith,  until  Christ's 
teachings  took  root  and  then  the  plan  manifests 
itself  as  including  the  whole  human  race  in  its 
scope.  Then  Peter  interprets  the  words  of  Joel's 
prophecy,  ' '  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  pour  forth 
of  my  spirit  upon  all  flesh,"  and  shows 
us  that  this  prophecy  was  finding  its 
expression  in  Pentecost.  Those  words,  ''all 
flesh "  point  to  the  wide  sweep  of  meaning 
in  Christ's  great  commission  before  his  ascen- 
sion, "Go  ye  forth  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations."  Simeon  under  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  spake  this  same  great  truth,  saying  that 
Jesus  was  ' '  a  light  for  the  unveiling  of  the  Gen- 
tiles and  the  glory  of  Israel. "  (R.V.)  Very  close 
to  this  teaching  is  that  of  Paul's,  concerning  the 
relation  of  the  law  to  the  Gospel,  in  which  he 
shows  that  the  whole  plan  of  the  centuries  comes 
to  its  fulness  in  the  teaching  that  a7iy  man  can  be 
saved  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  through  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Jesus  placed  great  emphasis 
upon  this  line  of  thought  when  he  said,  ' '  Many 
prophets  and  kings  have  desired  to  see  the  things 
that  ye  have  seen  and  have  not  seen  them,  and  to 
hear    the    things    which     ye    have   heard    and 


154  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

have  not  heard  them,"  and  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  tell  the  people  of  Chorazin 
and  Bethsaida  that  if  the  mighty  works  which 
had  been  done  in  them  had  been  done  in  Sodom, 
the  people  of  Sodom  would  have  repented,  but  he 
adds,  speaking  to  his  own  followers,  "Greater 
things  than  these  shall  ye  do. "  Elijah's  method 
of  calling  for  fire  from  heaven  could  no  longer  be 
entertained.  The  march  of  great  events  moves 
on  up  the  steeps  of  time.  God  hath  more  to  say. 
Look  at  that  word  "Father"  as  applied  to  our 
God.  Earely  was  such  a  thing  thought  of  in  the 
Old  Testament,  but  Jesus  freely  teaches  us  to  use 
it.  "The  Hebrews,"  says  Dr.  Camden  M.  Co- 
bern,  ' '  would  not  speak  the  word  which  we  ren- 
der Jehovah,  even  in  the  synagogue  readings, 
substituting  for  it  Adonai  (Lord.")  But  we  are 
bidden  to  call  God  "Our  Father,"  quickly  girding 
our  reverence  with  the  phrase,  "hallowed  be  thy 
name."  Jesus  explains  why  we  should  use  such 
a  title,  and  before  his  crucifixion  repeatedly  illus- 
trates its  beauty,  while  after  he  is  risen  from 
the  dead  he  uncovers  the  strong,  golden  bond 
which  unites  us  to  himself  with  wonderful  plain- 
ness and  equal  condescension  by  saying,  "I  as- 
cend unto  my  Father  and  unto  your  Father." 
Later,  Paul  takes  up  the  very  same  thought  and 
gives  it  the  Pentecostal  emphasis  by  saying, 
<*  The  Holy  Spirit  is  sent   forth  into  our  hearts 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  155 

crying  'Abba  Father.'  "  Now,  Jeremiah's  dream 
is  coming  to  pass  for  the  neio  covenant  is  being 
established. 

Beautiful  beyond  description  is  the  opening  out 
of  this  Scripture  plan,  into  this  Pentecostal  noon- 
day, so  truly  the  highest,  fullest,  grandest  ex- 
pression of  the  divine  thought  that  ever  shone 
upon  the  pathway  of  redeemed  pilgrims. 

There  is  great  beauty,  too,  evident  in  the  ex- 
pression of  G-od  to  us,  in  the  different  titles  which 
apply  to  himself.  In  those  earlier  days  he  was 
manifested  to  the  people  in  such  titles  as  Jehovah, 
the  Lord  God  Almighty,  or  I  Am  that  I  Am.  No- 
tice how  this  unfolding  of  titles  expressing  greater 
nearness,  and  rich  with  more  winsome  invita- 
tions, continues  to  increase  as  the  days  come  and 
go.  We  have  noticed  that  rarely  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament do  we  get  the  title  Father,  but  anon  there 
are  applied  to  him  such  titles  as  Father,  Shep- 
herd, Counsellor,  Prince  of  Peace.  Then  we  have, 
Jesus,  Saviour,  Lord,  Christ,  Immanuel,  and  later 
Holy  Spirit,  Holy  Ghost,  Spirit  of  Truth  and 
Spirit  of  the  Highest.  These  titles  applied  to  God 
have  produced  for  us  an  almost  limitless  wealth 
of  expression,  especially  in  hymns.  They  have 
served  to  give  us  words  of  few  syllables  and  words 
of  many  syllables,  and  words,  too,  that  would 
rhymn  with  other  words  until  the  singing  of 
Christian  hymns  has  been    found  possible  as  a 


156  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

means  of  most  direct  communion  with  the  per- 
sonal God.  Let  us  note  just  a  few  of  these  by 
way  of  illustration,  bearing  in  mind  that  we  are 
not  taking  time  to  give  a  complete  list  of  the 
titles  which  apply  to  God. 

"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul." 

Here  we  require  a  word  of  two  syllables  with 
which    to    express   our   Saviour,    and  the  word 
"  Je-sus  "  beautifully  fills  the  place. 
"Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me." 

Here  the  poet  has  called  in  the  title  which  re- 
quires four  syllables  in  all,  "  Rock-of-Ag-es." 

"I  come,  thou  wounded  Lamb  of  God, 
To  wash  me  in  thy  cleansing  blood." 

Here  <'Lamb  of  God  "  requires  three  words  of 
one  syllable  each,  making  the  title  beautifully 
harmonious.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  how 
this  same  wealth  of  titles  finds  its  expression  in 
such  lines  as  the  following: 

"What  a  wonderful  Saviour  is  Jesus — my  Jesus." 

"Come,  Holy  Spirit,  heavenly  dove, 
With  all  thy  quickening  powers." 

"  Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  hearts  inspire." 

"Come,  Holy  Spirit,  come, 
Send  forth  from  heaven,  thy  home, 
Thy  cheering  ray." 

It  is  customary  for  us  to  expect  that  every 
great  Christian  revival  shall  be  attended  with  a 


THE  DIVINE  UNFOLDING  157 

revival  in  singing,  and  God  has  made  ample  pro- 
vision for  the  most  devout  expressions  in  song 
through  the  unfolding  of  himself  in  this  perfect 
wealth  of  titles. 

The  title  Holy  Ghost  is  used  itself  over  forty 
times  in  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  New 
Testament.  This  does  not  include  such  titles  as 
"The  Spirit  of  Truth,"  or  "The  Spirit  of  the 
Highest,"  which  are  used  quite  frequently,  especi- 
ally the  former;  and  this  very  fact  alone  should 
invite  Christian  people  everywhere  to  study  eager- 
ly what  this  expression  of  God's  nature  means. 
There  was  a  time  in  my  own  life  when  I  fain 
would  have  changed  his  titles  and  cast  out  alto- 
gether the  words  Holy  Spirit  or  Holy  Ghost.  As 
discouraged  Thomas  proposed  to  place  his  fin- 
gers in  the  very  wounds  of  Christ,  so  gross  was  I 
that  the  title  Spirit  or  Ghost  suggested  at  once 
the  baser  uses  rather  than  the  better.  But  when 
I  so  surrendered  my  all  that  I  might  acquaint 
myself  with  His  gentleness  and  loveliness,  this 
act  became  like  a  microscope  over  a  flower  and  I 
saw  much  wealth  of  beauty  in  the  title.  I  no  long- 
er wonder  that  it  abounds  in  the  Scriptures.  It 
shall  also  be  heard  on  my  lips. 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT. 


"God  does  not  waste  power,  nor  use  the  supernatural 
where  the  natural  suffices.  When  human  hands  may  as 
well  take  away  the  stone,  he  does  not  bid  it  move  with- 
out hands,  or  send  angels  to  roll  it  away.  The  great 
Economist  of  the  universe  works  no  needless  miracles. 
He  may  choose  not  to  bestow  the  gift  of  tongues,  while 
he  so  stimulates  philological  research  as  that  a  hundred 
languages  hitherto  without  written  form  have  their 
alphabet  and  grammar,  lexicon  and  literature,  and  the 
word  of  God  is  without  a  miracle  both  preached  and 
translated  in  over  three  hundred  vernaculars.  In 
our  day,  within  a  space  of  time  in  which  Paul  could 
scarcely  have  found  his  way  to  strange  peoples,  our 
missionaries  learn  to  preach  in  their  tongues,  and  then 
teach  them  to  read  and  write  their  own  language,  and 
present  them  with  the  word  of  God  as  the  first  printed 
book  in  their  own  speech." 

Rev.  a.  T,  Pieeson,  D.D. 

Ye  shall  recel/oe  the  gifts  of  tlieHoly  Ghost. — A  cts  ii:  38 

"If  we  did  not  'receive  the  Holy  Ghost '  when  we 
believed,  and  if  we  have  not  '  received '  Him  since  we 
believed,  and  are  not  living  now  the  Spirit-filled  life, 
at  whose  door,  then,  does  the  blame  lie?" 

Rev.  John  MacNeil,  B.A. 

"  He  who  wants  ore  must  mine  beneath  the  surface. 
Life  has  little  purpose  and  little  meaning  till  the  scales 
have  fallen  from  our  eyes.  We  lead  little  lives.  We 
are  swayed  by  petty  motives.  We  are  controlled  by 
trifling  considerations  when  the  infinite  and  eternal 
crowd  closely  upon  us.  It  is  all  because  our  eyes  are 
holden  that  we  can  not  see.  Even  the  Saviour  himself 
walks  with  us  and  is  unrecognized.  Vision  is  what  we 
need."  Rev.  Joseph  F.  Berry,  D.D. 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT. 

W/^  are  now  upon  the  heights  of  the  super-rea- 
sonable — the  super-reasonable  rather  than 
the  un-reasonable.  Like  life  itself,  we  can  not  ana- 
lyze it  and  allot  its  parts  and  tabulate  its  ele- 
ments. It  is  super-reasonable.  The  cold,  literal 
critic  may  say  it  is  unreasonable,  yet  he  lives. 
So  here  the  same  critic  may  say  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  dwelling  with  men  is  unreasonable.  We 
answer,  yes,  from  your  standpoint,  unreasonable, 
but  from  ours  not  unrealizeahle.  The  miraculous 
help  of  G-od,  a  victorious  power  from  without  us,  is 
imperatively  needed  and  it  is  realized,  ' '  Eye  hath 
not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  but  unto  us  God  re- 
vealed it  through  the  Spirit." 

The  Apostle  John  says  that  "The  Holy  Spirit 
was  not  yet  given  for  that  Christ  was  not  yet 
glorified."  Is  not  the  Holy  Spirit  God,  and  has 
not  God  always  been  here?  Why  divide  the  sub- 
ject, f  then?  Here  a  great  many  people  appear  to 
have  been  confused  and  others  discouraged.  Fruit- 
less discussions  about  the  Trinity  and  about  de- 
grees of  grace  have  discouraged  and  slain  a  mul- 
titude here. 


163  OUT  OF  THE  CAIX-LIFE 

May  that  blessed  Spirit  now  give  us  the 
patience  and  the  willingness  to  learn  the  teach- 
ing that  we  may  better  understand  what  is  meant 
by  this  expression,  "He  was  not  yet  given,"  or 
"He  was  not  yet."  Was  not  the  Holy  Spirit 
always  in  the  world?  Yes,  indeed;  in  the  account 
of  the  Creation  at  the  close  of  the  second  verse  of 
the  first  book  of  the  Bible,  it  is  said,  "  The  Spirit 
of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  It 
appears  also  that  a  close  translation  of  this 
second  verse  in  the  book  of  Genesis  would  read, 
* '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  brooded  tenderly  over 
the  face  of  the  waters."  (Well  may  we  remember 
that  when  the  Lord  made  these  oceans  and  these 
continents,  he  did  it  with  a  tender  touch,  and  the 
lilies  and  the  roses  bear  the  marks  of  the  delicacy 
of  a  divine  movement.)  Holy  men  of  old,  too, 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  said  to  have  come  upon 
Sampson,  he  is  said  to  have  come  upon  Bazaleel 
and  Aholiab.  Jesus  was  conceived  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  John  the  Baptist  was  filled  with  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Of  Simeon  itis  said,  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
upon  him  and  it  was  revealed  unto  him  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  that  he  should  not  see  death  until  he 
had  seen  the  Lord's  Anointed,  and  he  was  led  of 
the  Spirit  into  the  temple.  Jesus  was  led  of  the 
Spirit  into  the  wilderness,  the  Holy  Spirit  de- 
scended upon  him  at  the  baptism. 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  163 

Yes,  surely  he  has  always  been,  as  the  Father 
and  the  Son  have  always  been,  but  he  was  not  yet 
given  because  the  time  was  not  yet  fulfilled.  Let 
us  illustrate.  A  mother  bought  a  pretty  piece  of 
goods  and  made  from  it  a  dress  for  her  daughter, 
little  Mary.  She  was  a  girl  of  seven  years.  Now, 
the  dress  was  all  finished  and  placed  away  in  some 
drawer  or  closet,  where  little  Mary  might  not  see 
it.  One  day  her  aunt  comes  to  her  mother's  home 
for  a  visit.  The  mother  and  the  aunty  slip  quietly 
away  so  that  Mary  does  not  see  them,  and 
there  the  dress  is  taken  out  and  shown  to  the 
aunty  who  admires  it  and  delights  in  the  joyful 
prospect  of  Mary  getting  her  beautiful  Christmas 
present,  the  new  dress.  After  a  few  days  have 
gone  by,  grandma  comes  to  visit.  The  little 
dress  is  taken  out  and  shown  grandma.  She 
admires  it  and  speaks  of  the  pleasure  it  will  give 
the  child  when  Christmas  comes;  and  later  still, 
little  Mary's  father,  whose  occupation  compels 
him  to  be  much  from'  home,  returns  for  a  brief 
stay  with  the  family.  The  little  dress  Is  taken 
out,  the  father  examines  it  and  pronounces  it 
very,  very  nice.  By  and  by  the  much-expected 
Christmas  morning  has  surely  at  last  come  to  the 
city.  Father  and  mother  are  both  awakened 
early,  while  little  Mary  comes  hurrying  over  the 
threshold  into  their  room  to  find  out  what  her 
Christmas  present  shall  be.     Christmas  greetings 


164  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

are  presented  with  the  morning   kisses  and  all  is 
ready.     The  mother,  taking  the  little  dress  in  her 
hands,  clothes  her  little  child  in  it  and  stands  back 
a  piece  to  see  how  it  looks,  while  the  little  girl 
walks  about  the  room  mingling  her   delight  with 
that  of  her  parents.     Christmas  morning  has  come 
and  the  present  is  given,  but  it  was  not  yet  given 
when  the  aunty  came  visiting  or  when    grandma 
came  or  even  when   father   came,  for    Christmas 
was  not  yet  come.    But  when  the  fullness  of  time 
had  brought  around  the  anniversary   of  the   dear 
old   day,   when   the  child   would   appreciate  the 
present  most  and  when  it   was  most  appropriate 
that  it  should  be  given,  then  she  received  it  and 
wore  it  as  her  very  own.     Even  little   Mary  may 
have  seen  that  piece  of  cloth  when  it  arrived,  but 
all  the  answers  received  to  her  questions   about  it 
were  so  indefinite  that  she  was  but  little  the  wiser 
concerning  it.     Now,  however,  it  is  hers. 

So  the  Holy  Spirit  came  out  of  the  bosom  of  the 
Godhead  in  creation  but  he  was  not  yet  given  be- 
cause the  time  was  not  yet  fulfilled ;  he  came  repeat- 
edly and  was  manifest  as  we  have  seen,  but  the 
time  must  have  its  preparations  like  the  bread  in 
its  rising.  By  and  by  when  the  stars  had  given  all 
the  light  they  could,  when  the  moon  had  shone 
its  fullest,  when  the  sun  had  risen  and  had  sent 
its  first  rays  of  morning  and  the  high  noon  of 
gospel  privilege  came  on,  the  clock  of  God's  prov- 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  165 

idence  struck  twelve,  the  wind  blew  and  the 
cloven  tongues  like  as  of  fire  sat  upon  the  people 
and  it  was  day,  gospel  day,  Pentecost  Day ;  and 
the  night  has  never  followed  it. 

Now  let  us  insist  upon  this.  The  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  expression  of  God  especially  made  for  the  day 
in  which  we  are  living.  Peter  does  not  say  that 
the  Pentecost  scene  is  the  fulfilling  of  Joel's  proph- 
ecy. He  simply  says,  ' '  this  is  that  which  hath 
been  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel."  If  you  will 
compare  the  second  chapter  of  Acts  with  the 
second  chapter  of  Joel's  prophecy  you  will 
see  that  there  remains  a  wider  significance 
yet  to  be  realized  by  the  children  of  men  in  the 
dispensation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Social  irregu- 
larities are  to  be  brought  into  order,  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  vast  multitudes  of  people  is  to  be 
marked  by  a  reconstruction  rich  with  greatest 
grace.  The  positive  need  of  our  receiving  him  as 
a  gift,  so  that  we  shall  realize  the  possibilities  of 
the  day  of  grace  in  which  we  live,  is  so  great  that 
we  may  well  tremble  with  the  thought  of  our 
daring  on  the  one  hand  and  of  our  neglect  on  the 
other.      We  need  a  very  pentecost  of  faith  to-day. 

Think  of  the  teaching  which  Paul  gave  to  new 
converts  from  heathenism.  And  what  messages 
Jesus  gave  to  the  multitudes  of  people  who  did 
not  seem  to  possess  spiritual  insight  enough  to 
catch  but  the  slightest  influence  of  his  great,  di- 


166  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

vine  meaning.  When  we  think  that  we  are  liv- 
ing in  the  greatest  day  of  opportunity  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  how  it  should  stir  our  very 
souls  to  a  faith  which  will  bring  us  such  a  victory 
as  men  hitherto  have  never  proven  or  even  imag- 
ined. No  people  from  the  days  of  Abraham  to 
the  days  of  Simon  Peter,  or  from  the  days  of 
Simon  Peter  to  the  days  of  the  generation  just 
preceding  us,  has  had  such  an  opportunity  to  know 
and  prove  G-od  as  we  have  to-day,  through  this 
gift,  the  abiding  gift.  Jesus  said  of  him,  ' '  He  shall 
abide  with  you  forever."  The  Lord  send  into  the 
hearts  of  his  people  everywhere  the  prayer  of 
George  Whitefield,  "Oh,  Lord,  make  me  an  ex- 
traordinary Christian." 

God's  orders  are  always  specific  orders.  It 
will  not  do  for  us  to  simply  generalize  the  teach- 
ing and  say  that  we  have  the  substance  anyway, 
what  more  do  we  need ;  for  since  he  has  out  of  his 
love  revealed  the  particulars  to  us  we  are  called 
upon  to  receive  the  truth  in  his  own  way.  A 
man  who  has  never  learned  music  may  sit  before 
a  piano  and  say:  The  music  is  in  this  instru- 
ment, all  you  have  to  do  is  to  touch  the  keys  and 
bring  it  out.  There  are  only  so  many  keys  any- 
way and  consequently  you  can  only  get  so  much 
music  out  of  the  instrument;  so  he  begins  to 
touch  the  keys  with  his  untrained  fingers,  but  no 
music  results.     He  must  particularize,   learning 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  167 

little  by  little  if  he  would  be  a  musician,  and  we 
must  particularize  if  we  would  receive  this  revela- 
tion of  our  G-od.  There  are  few  errors  more  fatal 
than  that  of  religious  indolence  which  refuses  to 
think  God's  thoughts  after  him  when  he  tells  us 
to  receive  the  promise  of  the  Father  by  faith,  or 
when  he  says  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  is  idle  for  us  to  generalize  and  say,  I 
have  given  myself  to  Christ;  what  more  can  I  do? 
You  can  do  just  as  much  more  as  the  Lord  calls 
upon  you  to  do;  you  can  do  the  most  rational  pos- 
sible thing,  when  the  gift  is  offered  to  you.  You 
can  take  the  gift.  There  was  no  generalizing 
when  Ananias  said  to  Saul,  ' '  Be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  or  when  Paul  said  to  the Ephesians, 
''Did  ye  receive  the  Holy  Ghost  when  ye  be- 
lieved." You  know  that  it  is  not  enough  for  one 
who  would  follow  Christ  to  say  that  he  believes  in 
God.  He  must  believe  in  God  as  revealed  in 
Jesus,  and  it  is  not  enough  for  one  who  seeks  to 
live  a  godly  life  to  say  that  his  sins  are  pardoned 
through  Jesus,  for  the  great  gift  is  his  for  the  ask- 
ing, even  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  to  the  symbol  of 
the  Tongue  of  Fire  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  the 
speaking  with  tongues  and  the  sound  as  of  the 
rushing  of  a  mighty  wind,  we  can  not  add  greater 
light  than  by  quoting  from  William  Arthur's 
classic  book,    "  The  Tongue  of  Fire." 

*  'Among  the  permanent  benefits  resulting  from 


168  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Pentecost  we  can  not  include  the  visible  flame. 
Of  it  we  never  again  find  any  mention  in  the 
course  of  the  apostolical  history;  it  appears  to 
stand  related  to  the  Christian  dispensation  as  the 
fires  of  Sinai  did  to  the  Mosaic — the  solemn  token 
of  supernatural  power  upon  its  inaugural  day. 

"Neither  are  we  warranted  in  looking  upon 
the  'gift  of  tongues'  as  one  of  the  permanent 
privileges  of  the  Church.  Only  thrice,  throughout 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  do  we  find  any  record 
that  it  accompanied  the  first  introduction  of 
Christianity  to  a  place;  and  both  these  instances 
are  very  peculiar.  The  first  was  in  the  house  of 
Cornelius,  when  Peter,  preaching  to  his  Italian 
auditory,  felt  some  misgiving  whether  he  might 
not  by  possibility  be  doing  wrong  should  he  in- 
clude them  within  the  fold  of  the  Church;  but  he 
saw  a  great  change  pass  upon  the  men  before 
him,  and  heard  them  begin  to  speak  with  other 
tongues,  and  thus  saw  that,  as  to  themselves  at 
the  first,  so  to  the  G-entiles  the  Lord  had  now 
given  a  Pentecost.  The  other  case  is  that 
wherein  the  disciples  at  Ephesus,  who  had  been 
instructed  in  the  baptism  of  John,  but  had  not  so 
much  as  'heard  whether  there  was  any  Holy 
Ghost,'  received  the  word  at  the  hands  of  Paul, 
and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues.  Paul 
shows  the  gift  of  tongues  to  be  destitute  of  any 
power  of  edification  for  the  Church,  and  therefore 


THE  NEEDED  OTFT  169 


not  to  be  a  gift  likely  to  continue  where  all  were 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  '  Tongues 
are  for  a  sign,  not  to  them  that  believe,  but  to 
them  that  believe  not.'  The  only  specific  use 
assigned  to  the  miracle  is  that  it  is  a  sign  to  them 
who  believe  not.  In  any  community,  then,  in 
which  the  whole  population  had  become  believers, 
this  sign  ceased  to  be  called  for.  "We  are  not 
called  upon  to  say  that  it  will  never  be  restored 
to  the  Church,  for  that  is  never  said  in  the  Word 
of  Grod ;  nor  should  we  ridicule  or  talk  disrespect- 
fully of  the  faith  of  any  Christian  who  devoutly 
expects  its  restoration.  All  we  say  is  that  we 
have  not  Scriptural  ground  to  claim  it  as  one  of 
the  permanent  gifts  of  the  Spirit;  and  we  may 
add  that  if  it  ever  returns  to  the  Church  it  will 
be,  not  a  mystification,  but  a  miracle,  a  real 
speaking  with  '  other  tongues, '  not  a  speaking  in 
some  unheard-of,  unknown  tongue." 

No  emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  sound  as  of  the 
rushing  of  the  wind  in  the  permanent  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Spirit.  But  the  gift  is  ours,  and  his 
presence  is  as  evident  as  the  expression  ' '  receive 
ye  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Nothing  is  more  apparent  to-day  among  believ- 
ers than  that  we  are  in  great  need  of  some  kind 
of  a  power  to  pump  up  the  energies  of  the  peo- 
ple and  give  us  enough  real,  constant  flood  of  ac- 
tivity to  keep  us  moving.     Formality,  coldness 


170  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN- LIFE 

and  a  strange  incapacity  for  gripping  spiritual 
forces,  the  lack  of  power  to  impress  humanity 
with  the  living  truth,  of  courage  to  overcome  the 
barriers  which  stand  constructed  in  the  path  of 
the  child  of  the  kingdom,  these  all  give  evidence 
of  a  great  need  of  a  divine  anointing.  We  catch 
hold  of  truth,  we  need  to  have  the  truth  take  hold 
of  us.  We  express  ourselves  as  clinging  to  Jesus, 
we  need  to  have  the  Holy  Spirit  impart  Jesus 
himself  within  us.  We  need  life.  We  know  that 
life  as  a  condition  is  very  hard  to  describe,  but 
O,  how  it  moves  things  when  we  get  it. 

Take  these  words  of  Christ  to  which  we  re- 
ferred previously,  when  he  said  that  the  man  who 
received  the  Holy  Ghost  should  have  rivers  of 
living  water  flow  out  of  him  There  is  not  a  par- 
ticle of  our  pump-system  in  that  statement  of 
his.  How  wearily  we  make  our  way  in  the 
struggle  against  sin,  lifting  a  little  here  and  there 
and  then  lacking  the  very  ambition  to  do  more, 
though  it  lay  right  at  our  hand  to  do  it. 

Take  our  assemblies  for  Christian  testimony. 
How  often  a  strange  slowness  seems  to  call,  as  if  in 
agony  for  some  kind  of  an  impetus  to  set  things 
going.  The  fountains  are  frozen  and  the  wings 
are  tied.  Look  at  the  leader.  How  he  works! 
It  is  pump,  pump,  pump.  Here  him  say,  "Now 
is  there  not  one  more  who  would  speak  a 
word     for     Jesus."       Then     failing     to     get   a 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  171 

response,  "Let  us  sing  again."  He  calls 
for  a  testimony,  to  be  answered  perhaps  with  a 
very  brief  expression,  uttered  in  such  low  tones 
that  only  a  few  can  hear  it.  Yet  this  is  not  the 
core  of  the  difficulty.  The  meeting,  sung  to  a 
conclusion  rather  than  admit  a  failure,  is  closed, 
and  the  tone  of  the  spirit  of  the  affair  is  expressed 
in  the  same  wearisome  word,  pump,  pump,  pump. 
The  same  is  often  true  in  church  financing.  Re- 
cently I  heard'of  a  pastor  whose  congregation  was 
much  addicted  to  social  amusements  and  tobacco 
using,  asking  for  a  contribution  of  two  hundred 
dollars  for  foreign  missions  and  receiving  forty 
dollars.  The  Sunday  school  was  appealed  to  to 
help  in  the  matter  and  a  competition  was  inaug- 
urated. The  officers  of  the  Sunday  school,  other 
than  the  teachers,  together  with  each  class,  en- 
tered into  the  competition,  and  when  it  had  end- 
ed the  officers  had  succeeded  in  getting  together 
the  most  money,  hence  they  were  entitled  to  the 
prize,  and  by  the  time  the  pastor  had  gotten  a 
prize  such  as  was  at  all  appropriate  for  grown 
people  like  the  officers,  almost  the  total  amount 
of  their   contribution  was  exhausted. 

Christian  America!  According  to  the  Internal 
Revenue  statistics  and  other  reliable  sources  of 
information,  during  the  last  year  spent  five  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  for  tobacco  and 
five  millions  for  sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen. 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


Characterize  it  by  the  same  word,  piunp,  pump, 
pump. 

We  cry  *' hard  times"  with  the  world.  Great 
expenditures  for  fireworks  and  gala  days  go  right 
on — the  coronation  ot  the  Russian  Czar,  Nicholas 
II.,  costs  a  million  pounds  sterling  (not  including 
human  lives)  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  company  of 
people  in  one  assembly  on  the  American  shore  of 
the  Atlantic  contribute  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars for  missions  on  the  other  hand,  in  one  day. 
Then  a  gentle  apology  must  be  made  for  such 
open-heartedness  and  the  people  must  be  warned 
against  spasmodic  devotion.  But  to  go  into  the 
subject  of  church  financing  would  require  a  book 
of  itself.  Just  to  touch  it  can  scarcely  fail  to  re- 
mind the  Christian  of  the  all  but  caustic  words 
of  Jesus,  "Where  is  your  faith?" 

Our  organization  is  wonderfully  complete,  our 
churches  are  comfortable,  our  methods  of  travel  are 
convenient,  our  homes  are  beautiful,  musical  in- 
struments are  plentiful,  good  books  and  magazines 
and  papers  abound;  and  the  day  of  greatest  oppor- 
tunity which  ever  dawned  upon  mortals  is  here,  yet 
we  lack,  sadly  lack,  that  which  makes  the  life  an 
overflow  of  benevolence,  and  I  fear  that  we  are 
given  to  spend  much  of  our  time  trying  to  prime 
the  pump.  In  some  parts  of  this  country  they 
very  easily  do  away  with  that  necessity  by 
striking  an  artesian  vein,  then  the  water  pumps 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  173 

itself.  Let  us  not  do  anything  else  but  that 
one  thing  which  will  bring  the  supply  to  our 
needs,  let  us  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
receive  him  by  faith.  Dear  Christian,  thyself 
take  the  gift. 

In  the  home,  in  the  realm  of  social  customs,  in 
the  pulpit  and  in  fact  everywhere  to-day  we  are 
losing  power  from  want  of  emphasizing  that 
which  is  of  first  importance.  Doing  is  not  neces- 
sarily succeeding.  Success  is  not  fidelity.  On 
the  farm  the  thing  to  emphasize  during  the  cloud- 
burst is  not  corn  planting,  and  the  thing  to  em- 
phasize in  the  autumn  is  rather  the  gathering  of 
the  fruit  than  training  the  vines.  G-ymnastics 
are  valuable,  but  who  would  think  of  emphasizing 
the  practice  of  gymnastics  while  in  the  chair  of 
a  barber   shop? 

Look  again  at  the  thirteenth  chapter  of 
Corinthians.  Over  and  over  and  over  again, 
Paul  lays  emphasis  upon  the  grace  of  Love. 
He  describes  it,  he  classifies  it,  he  analyzes  it,  he 
illustrates  it,  he  commends  it,  until  when  you 
have  read  the  chapter  through  you  say  there  is 
one  thing  to  do,  "I  must  receive  the  grace  of 
love  or  'I  am  nothing.'"  John's  Gospel  repre- 
sents Jesus  as  emphasizing  Light  and  Life.  Again 
and  again  he  uses  those  two  vital  words.  Life, 
Light;  Light,  Life.  Jesus  says  that  he  performed 
many  of  his  miracles  and  uttered  many  of  his  say- 


174  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ings  to  supply  the  people's  special  needs.  He  did 
not  do  or  say  just  because  the  actions  or  the 
words  were  in  truth,  but  because  they  were  in 
the  truth  which  needed  emphasis.  Take  the 
single  illustration  of  Jesus'  words  just  before  bid- 
ding Lazarus  come  forth  into  life  again.  He  said: 
"Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hearest  me, 
*  *  *  but  because  of  the  multitude  which 
standeth  around  I  said  it  that  they  may  believe 
that  thou  didst  send  me."  Jesus  did  not  deal 
with  questions  of  botany  or  astronomy  or  geology 
in  his  teachings.  He  emphasized  the  needed 
truth.  General  truths  about  nature  and  about 
man  or  about  God,  no  matter  how  often  or  how 
well  stated,  will  not  bring  in  the  reign  of  love  and 
the  victory  over  self.  The  gospel  is  nut  a  gospel 
only.  The  thrill  of  joy  and  faith  and  hope  and 
love  which  springs  through  the  very  soul  of  that 
gospel  comes  from  the  heart  of  the  living  Jesus. 
And  the  people  need  him,  and  each  other.  We 
do  not  so  need  to  get  a  blessing,  much  less  to 
*'get  religion,"  but  we  need  to  get  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  this  will  make  us  serve  our  fellows. 
If  the  pulpit  everywhere  would  truly  preach  Jesus 
to  the  people — not  about  him,  but  HIM,  the  Lord 
would  energize  our  thoughts  and  open  to  us  the 
gospel,  until  we  would  be  astonished  at  the  possi- 
bilities of  our  mission ;  and  the  perplexing  ques- 
tions of  science  and  of  society  and  the  language 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  175 

of  nature  would  be  caught  into  the  train  of  this 
message,  as  the  autumn  leaves  are  behind  a  swift 
train  of  cars.  Then,  the  pirate  spirit  would  be 
supplanted  by  the  rescue  spirit.  Why  must  we 
have  and  do,  whether  righteously  or  questionably? 
Why  do  we  establish  a  lot  of  other  little  govern- 
ments with  which  to  help  the  Lord  maintain  his 
authority  and  often  with  the  vain  plea  of  helping 
him  support  his  church  ?  As  the  Russians  say, 
*'The  better  is  the  worst  enemy  of  the  best.'' 
Ah,  God  has  called  us  to  superiority  and  we  must 
receive  and  know  him  in  the  most  superior  ex- 
pression of  himself  before  we  will  feel  shame  at 
the  thought  of  amusing  ourselves  to  feed  the 
poor,  or  of  our  penurious  methods  of  giving  and 
working  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  offerings  the  old  Jewish  law  called  for  the 
first  and  the  unblemished.  Later  the  standard 
has  been  elevated  rather  than  lowered,  but  we 
can  not  reach  it  unless  our  souls  thrill  with  the 
divine  presence,  which  emphasizes  the  all  impor- 
tant, and  generally  refines  the  conduct. 

Yet  after  all  it  is  not  so  much  the  matter  of 
what  is  done  or  given  as  it  is  that  the  quality  of 
our  choices  and  the  emphasis  which  bears  our 
faith  are  inferior  or  misplaced.  No  amount  of 
cultivating  and  planning  will  give  the  refined 
power  to  our  undertakings,  but  the  Holy  Spirit 
will.     And  it  seems  to  be  one  of  the  chosen  de- 


176  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

vices  of  the  enemy  to  busy  us  with  a  thousand 
regulations  rather  than  consent  that  our  atten- 
tion should  be  given  to  the  one  thing  needful — 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

You  know  that  the  so-called  society  life  is  at 
the  opposite  pole  from  the  missionary  life.  Now, 
the  thing  to  be  emphasized  in  this  day  of  com- 
forts and  opportunities — in  this  day  of  Christ,  is 
surely  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and  either  the 
missionary  is  a  religious  fanatic,  or  else  the  so- 
ciety church  member  is  coldly  selfish.  The  con- 
trast is  too  [great.  Look  at  these  two  classes  of 
people  without  any  prejudice.  What  would  you 
say  of  the  first  class — the  missionary.  Why,  she 
acts  as  if  some  great  sacrifice  had  become  the 
very  passion  of  her  life.  Now,  what  would  you 
say  of  the  second  class — the  society  woman  ? 
Why,  she  acts  as  if  she  meant  herself  to  be  some- 
body and  have  a  good  time.  That  kind  of  lan- 
guage does  not  represent  Christ.  O,  let  us 
change  the  emphasis.  Let  us  either  restrict  the 
zeal  of  the  missionary  or  pray  for  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  home-stayer. 

What  would  Jesus  do  ?  Children  of  God,  there  is 
a  great  inheritance  in  store  for  us  upon  this  earth. 
We  may  not  have  the  strength  of  body,  mind  or 
soul  that  Paul  and  other  missionaries  have  had, 
but  there  never  was  a  great  motive  in  any  of 
their  souls  and  there  never  was  a  grace  in  any  of 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  177 

their  characters  which  you  and  I  may  not  share 
through  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the 
Lord. 

"  The  Master  hath  need  of  the  reapers, 

And,  idler,  he  calleth  to  thee; 
Come  out  of  the  mansion  of  pleasure, 

Prom  the  halls  where  the  careless  may  be. 
Soon  the  shadows  of  eve  may  be  falling 

With  the  mists,  and  the  dew  and  rain; 
O,  what  are  thy  joys  and  thy  follies 

To  the  blight  andthe  waste  of  the  grain? 

0,|what  are  thy  wants  to  the  summons, 
And  what  are  thy  griefs  and  thy  pain  ? 

Here,  too,  is  the  very  secret  of  the  Christian  Re- 
vival. It  is  not  for  us  to  get  up  an  expression  of 
enthusiasm,  or  for  thaimatter  to  get  up  anything 
else,  excepting  humanity.  It  is  for  us  to  get 
down  from  on  high  that  power  of  God  which  will 
cause  us  sweetly  to  keep  tally  with  his  wooing 
grace.  Do  you  not  see  that  no  true  revival  can 
be  realized  without  the  most  implicit  reliance 
without  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  you  can  not  put 
truth  into  a  man's  heart  as  you  would  empty  a 
basketful  of  apples  into  a  barrel.  It  must  rather 
get  there  as  music  does  into  the  heart  of  one  who 
gives  himself  to  it,  awakened  to  the  desire,  per- 
haps, by  hearing  some  great  musician.  When  we 
truly  honor  the  Holy  Spirit,  without  a  shade  of 
clinging  to  our  reputation  or  comfort  or  under- 
standing, even;  then  he  has   found  the   channel 


178  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

through  which  he  can  work,  and  just  as  the  water 
will  flow  copiously  out  into  the  open  channel  be- 
fore it,  so  the  blessed  Spirit  will  pour  his  convict- 
ing and  saving  grace  through  our  work,  until 
there  shall  be  great  rivers  laden  with  heavenly- 
provision  carried  forth  to  supply  the  needs  of  hun- 
gry humanity.     What  a  holy  commerce  ! 

Let  us  hear  again  those  words  of  Jesus  at  the 
last  day  of  the  great  feast,  telling  us  that  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  should  make  a  man  like 
a  fountain,  out  of  which  flow  rivers  of  living 
water.  It  would  have  been  a  great  saying  had  he 
said  that  the  flow  should  be  as  the  meadow  brook. 
But  no,  it  is  rivers;  Mississippis,  Amazons, 
Thameses,  Niles  and  Danubes.  A  man,  one  man, 
shall  thus  be  like  a  vast  supply  station,  shipping 
the  supplies  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  There  ap- 
pears a  ship  freighted  with  prayer  and  money 
for  the  heathen  in  Asia.  There  appears  another 
freighted  with  food  and  clothing  for  the  famine- 
stricken  people  of  some  other  country.  Here  go 
cargoes  of  toil  and  constant  fidelity  with  gifts  to 
schools  and  orphanages  in  another  region,  and 
here  again  are  gifts  to  hospitals,  and  great 
freights  of  praise  mingling  as  precious  spices 
with  the  cargoes  going  to  many  ports,  and  all 
sailing  under  the  colors  of  Calvary.  Hallellujah! 
How  things  will  move  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
truly  honored.     Then  shall  we  not  see  the  figures 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  179 

for  tobacco  bury  almost  too  deep  for  a  resurrec- 
tion the  figures  for  Missions.  Then  shall  the  vast, 
world-wide  revival  appear,  and  we  shall  be  one 
in  victory  as  we  are  one  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  That 
revival  will  not  only  be  "a  wave,"  it  will  be  a 
tide.  It  will  not  only  be  individual,  it  will  be 
mutual.  It  will  not  only  quicken  the  intellect,  it 
will  work  the  intellect.  It  will  not  only  make  the 
soul  happy,  it  will  make  it  sacrificial.  It  will  not 
only  sti?'  the  feelings,  it  will  churn  them.  And 
to  that  revival  the  word  ^' after''  can  never  be 
company. 

Where  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy  ?  Not  that  we 
require  anything  approaching  the  egotism  which 
would  cause  us  to  seek  to  excel  our  fellows  in  a  sort 
of  religious  fortune  telling.  Prophecy  primarily 
has  not  so  much  to  do  with  the  future  as  it  has  to  do 
with  the  present.  When  men  required  to  learn 
at  God's  hands  the  lesson  concerning  divine  wis- 
dom over-reaching  all  time,  then  prophecy  espec- 
ially required  the  vision  of  the  future,  and  that 
very  teaching  becomes  a  mighty  inspiration  to 
our  hopes  and  beliefs  to-day.  But  the  spirit  of 
prophecy  will  give  us  insight  as  well  as  foresight; 
by  it  we  shall  see  the  movement  of  G-od  and  take 
hold  of  the  victory  brought  to  view  by  faith. 
When  Joel  said,  < '  Your  sons  and  your  daughters 
shall  prophesy  and  your  young  men  shall  see 
visions  and  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams," 


180  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

he  means  that  the  saying  should  have  a  blessed 
fulfillment. 

Let  a  man  receive  the  Holy  Spirit  and  he 
has  the  insight  into  G-od's  movement;  he  has 
the  conception  of  God's  care  and  of  God's  heart- 
breakings,  and  he  has  the  conception  of  the 
victory  of  love  over  hate,  and  of  good  over  evil, 
and  he  knows  it;  and  seeing  how  the  fingers  of 
God's  providence  are  pointing  to  duty,  he  gets  his 
own  individual  commission  and  proceeds  to  fulfill 
it,  conscious  that  the  work  is  God's  own.  We 
need  to  keep  tally  with  God.  We  need  that  com- 
munion in  service  which  makes  the  service  divine. 
The  prophetic  insight  is  evidently  one  of  the 
greatest  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most 
common  results  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  in-dwelling. 

At  the  salutation  of  Mary,  Elizabeth  is  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then  right  promptly  she  calls 
Mary  "the  mother  of  my  Lord."  Mary  herself 
has  been  the  recipient  of  the  same  blessed  spirit 
and  proceeds  to  answer  her  in  that  prophetic 
poem  beginning,  "My  soul  doth  magnify  the 
Lord,"  her  insight  reaching  forth  until  she  dares 
to  announce,  ' '  henceforth  all  generations  shall 
call  me  blessed,"  and  "he  hath  put  down 
princes  from  their  thrones."  Zacharias,  the 
priest,  Elizabeth's  husband,  being  filled  with  the 
Holy  Spirit,  sees  in  John  the  prepared  way 
'  *  whereby    the   day-spring   from  on   high    hath 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  181 

visited  us  and  men  shall  serve  God  without  fear. " 
Simeon  coming  in  the  Spirit  in  the  temple,  having 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  him,  and  it  being  revealed 
(mark  you)  unto  him  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he 
should  not  see  death  until  he  had  seen  the  Lord's 
anointed,  sees  in  Jesus  ''a  light  for  the  un- 
veiling of  the  nations  and  the  glory,  ay, 
the  glory  of  Israel."  John  filled  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  sees  well  through  Jewish  legal- 
ism and  Roman  selfism  regarding  man's 
relation  to  man,  and  recognizing  that  larger 
brotherhood  of  which  the  angels  had  sung  over 
Bethlehem,  he  says,  ' '  He  that  hath  two  coats  let 
him  impart  to  him  that  hath  none,  and  he  that 
hath  food  let  him  do  likewise.  Then  cometh  He 
mightier  than  I,  He  shall  baptize  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost."  John  saw  it.  Jesus  bade  his  apos- 
tles not  to  be  anxious  when  they  were  delivered 
up  before  governors  and  kings,  for  it  would  be 
the  "Spirit  of  their  Father"  who  would  speak  in 
them.  Now  note  the  words  of  Joel.  Peter  quotes 
without  any  reduction  of  meaning  or  cautious 
comment  as  if  to  pare  them  down,  "Your  sons 
and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy  and  your 
young  men  shall  see  visions  and  your  old  men 
shall  dream  dreams."  Paul  catches  up  the  same 
thread  again  and  says,  "We  know  not  what  to 
pray  for  as  we  ought,  but  the  spirit  helpeth  our 
infirmities."     Join    this  to  the  words   of   Je^us, 


183  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

"Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  of  the  Father,  believe 
that  you  have  received  it,  and  ye  shall  have  it," 
and  behold  the  prophetic  insight  or  rather  that 
insight  which  is  the  very  tide  in  the  waters  of 
prophecy  is  the  essence  of  true  prayer.  By  this 
very  prophetic  anointing  our  experiences  are 
linked,  too,  with  that  of  Daniel  when  he  said 
he  knew  both  the  dream  and  the  interpreta- 
tion which  the  king  asked  for,  and  with  Paul  when 
he  said  on  the  corn-boat  in  the  storm  that  the 
passengers   were  safe. 

Knowing  human  weaknesses,  those  of  others 
and  our  own,  we  may  not  be  too  hasty  about  de- 
claring a  given  conviction  or  fact,  but  the  very 
consciousness  of  it  will  tone  and  shape  our  efforts 
as  the  Holy  Spirit,  its  author,  quickens  our  faith : 
and  indirectly,  at  least,  the  act  will  represent  the 
fact  or  the  conviction.  "I  know"  and  "lam 
persuaded"  will  then  be  phrases  which,  like  electric 
wires,  convey  the  light  from  the  dynamo  to  the 
lamp, 

I  do  not  think  that  Joel  meant  that  the  young 
men  would  lie  down  to  sleep  and  have  brought 
before  their  minds  pictures  of  horses  and 
chariots  and  divided  hosts  of  the  enemy; 
this  would  have  been  very  instructive  -rae 
day.  This  kind  of  vision  had  proven  so. 
But  I  think  he  meant  that  young  men  would  get 
the  spiritual  eye  opened  until  they  would  sit  dowD 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  183 

in  their  offices  or  toil  on  their  farms  or  labor  in 
their  shops  or  ride  their  bicycles  over  the  streets 
or  preach  the  gospel,  while  there  should  be  flood- 
ing their  souls  and  minds  holy  conceptions  of 
what  men  would  be  like  when  they  became  truly 
Christly  men,  holy  conceptions  of  the  refining  and 
sanctifying  of  mercantile  practices,  of  chastity 
and  virtue,  and  of  home ;  the  vision  of  the  doubt- 
laden  man  being  transformed  by  the  power  of 
God  and  becoming  an  example  of  godliness.  Such 
a  vision  would  come  into  their  minds.  They  shall 
look  upon  strange  confusions  created  by  dishon- 
esty in  trade  and  in  courts  and  pharisaism  in 
churches,  and  knowing  G-od  there  shall  appear 
before  them  the  coming  victory  of  the  kingdom. 
And  when  Joel  said,  "Your  old  men 
shall  dream  dreams,"  I  do  not  think 
that  he  meant  that  they  should  go  to 
sleep  at  night  and  be  disturbed  by  some  dream 
which  in  the  morning  they  would  try  to  interpret 
by  some  strange  rules  which  nobody  knows  the 
reason  for  accepting,  but  I  think  he  meant,  they 
shall  sit  with  their  thin,  cool  hands  upon  the  arms 
of  their  chairs  or  walk  the  streets  aided  by  their 
canes,  or  ride  in  the  trains  or  carriages,  while 
dreams  like  that  of  Simeon  when  he  said  that 
<' Christ  was  for  the  unveiling  of  the  Gentiles," 
shall  come  into  their  minds.  They  shall  look 
upon  intemperance  and  say,  "Christ  shall  root 


184  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

it  out."  They  shall  look  upon  every  false  ambi- 
tion which  artful  men  try  to  plant  in  the  bosoms 
of  the  people  of  the  nations  and  they  shall  say, 
"It  shall  be  rooted  out  and  destroyed."  And  in 
their  dreams  gentleness  shall  be  mightier  than 
the  storm,  love  shall  out-do  all  contention,  peace 
shall  prevail  over  disturbance  and  death  shall  be 
the  passage-way  to  immortal  service,  in  the  spirit 
of  Christ.  And  these  old  men  and  those  young 
men  shall  see  light  where  others  shall  see  dark- 
ness, and  the  reign  of  goodness  where  others  see 
only  the  prevalence  of  the  wrong ;  they  shall  see 
victory  where  others  see  defeat,  and  where  others 
look  upon  the  surface  and  are  frightened  with  a 
secret  terror,  they  shall  employ  those  strong  rays 
of  holy  shining  and  look  through  the  problem,  as 
very  prophets  of  God. 

Would  that  all  God's  people  were  prophets, 
keeping  tally  with  the  divine  movement 
and  sharing  in  the  divine  triumph.  We  are 
also  called  to  be  priests,  and  if  we  could 
be  priests,  true  priests  to  God  as  a  peo- 
ple, without  the  prophetic  power,  the  world 
would  fawn  to  us  everywhere,  but  when  we  are 
prophetic  priests  bad  men  will  hate  our  efforts. 
They  know  that  their  badness  is  doomed,  and  like 
the  steady  aggression  of  the  tides  of  the  sea  mak- 
ing their  way  to  the  beach,  so  must  the  Chris- 
tian movement  make  its  way   until    world-wide 


THE  NEEDED  GIFT  185 

it  washes  away  the  woes  of  the  pleading  peo- 
ple greeting  it  on  the  shores  of  time.  <«Ye 
shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  RE' 
VEALING. 


"JWe  must  forget  ourselves  and  all  self-interest,  and 
listen  and  be  attentive  to  God."         Madame  Guyon. 

The  spirit  semrcheth  all  things,  yea  the  deep  things  of 
Ood. — 1  Corinthians,  ii:  10. 

"  There  is  one  thing  that  people  say  very  carelessly 
that  always  seems  to  me  to  be  a  dreadful  thing  for  a 
man  to  say.  They  say  it  when  they  talk  about  their 
lives  to  one  another,  and  think  about  their  lives  to 
themselves,  and  by  and  by  very  often  say  it  upon  their 
death-bed  with  the  last  gasp,  as  though  their  entrance 
into  the  eternal  world  had  brought  them  no  deeper 
enlightenment.  One  wonders  what  is  the  revelation 
that  comes  to  them  when  they  stand  upon  the  borders 
of  the  other  side  and  are  in  the  full  life  and  eternity  of 
God.  The  thing  men  say  is,  '  I  have  done  the  best  I 
can.'  It  is  an  awful  thing  for  a  man  to  say.  The  man 
never  lived,  save  he  who  perfected  our  humanity,  who 
ever  did  the  very  best  he  could.  You  dishonor  your 
life,  you  not  simply  shut  your  eyes  to  certain  facts,  you 
not  simply  say  an  infinitely  absurd  and  foolish  thing, 
but  you  dishonor  your  [human  life  if  you  say  that  you 
have  done  in  any  day  of  your  life  or  in  all  the  days  of 
your  life  put  together  the  very  best  that  you  could,  or 
been  the  very  best  man  that  you  could  be." 

Phillips  Brooks. 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING. 

TIT"  HAT  the  telescope  is  to  the  stars,  or  what  the 
sunlight  is  to  the  morning,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
to  man  and  salvation.  Christianity  is  superior  wis- 
dom. Strange  searchings  and  practices  of  men 
and  women  in  the  realms  of  the  occult,  both 
prove  our  thirst  for  knowledge  in  such  realms 
and  convince  the  truth-seeker  of  the  importance 
where  we  hear  so  much  of  mind-reading  and  hyp- 
notism and  spiritism  of  learning  directly  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  That  we  may  better  learn  the  way 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  have  classified  in  this  chap- 
ter some  activities  relating  to  his  office  under 
the  title  of  the  seven-fold  revealing,  as  follows: 

1.  The  Universal  Revelation. 

2.  The  Scripture  Revelation. 

3.  The  Revelation  of  self  and  sin. 

4.  The  Revelation  of  salvation. 

5.  The  Revealing  of  the  direct  witness. 

6.  The  Revelation  in  the  godly  life. 

7.  Special  Revelations  to  faith. 

I. 

The  Universal  Revelation. 
"We  should  not  forget  that  Christ  has  been  as- 
serted somewhat  to  every  heart.    The  Holy  Spirit 


190  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

has  been  the  silent,  universal  preacher,  while 
thankless  men  have  been  too  faithless  to  rear  a 
Phillip  for  his  messenger,  or  too  slow  to  send 
the  Phillip  who  waited  for  means  with  which  to 
go.  Yet  he  has  kept  on  convincing.  To  me  this 
is  one  of  the  most  restful  thoughts  which  a  soul- 
winner  can  cherish.  Just  to  think,  the  Holy 
Spirit  hath  spoken  to  this  soul  before  me.  He 
knows,  or  may  know  the  truth  of  what  I  say, 
and  if  I  can  so  impress  him  (not  with  my  skill 
or  my  presence),  as  that  he  shall  feel  the  cor- 
respondence between  this  impression  and  that 
which  he  has  known  before,  then  verily  faith  may 
be  expected,  and  the  soul  shall  find  the  peace  of 
God.  And  how  restful,  though  by  no  means 
slothful  we  must  be,  when  we  just  seek  to  keep 
tally  with  God's  own  work.  For  he  is  working 
wonderfully,  even  while  we  sleep. 

John  says  of  Jesus,  ' '  There  was  the  true  light, 
even  the  light  which  lighteth  every  man  coming 
into  the  world."  (John  i:  9.)  Jesus  gave  the 
Jews  to  understand  that  they  could  recognize  his 
divinity,  but  they  "had  not  his  word  abiding 
in  them."  (John  v:  38.)  So  there  is  a  word  of 
God  in  us  as  well  as  in  the  Book.  ' '  It  is  writ- 
ten," said  he  again,  <'they  shall  all  be  taught  of 
God,  every  one  that  heard  from  the  Father  and 
hath  learned  cometh  unto  me."  (John  vi:  45.) 
Then   all   are  taught,  but   some    do   not   learn. 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALINO  191 

Again  said  Jesus :  * '  If  any  man  willeth  to  do  his 
will  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  be 
of  God  or  whether  I  speak  from  myself."  (John 
vii:  17.)  Here  is  the  condition  of  character 
which  learns.  Paul,  following  the  very  same 
line  of  teaching,  says  that  men  hold  down  the 
truth  in  unrighteousness,  and  knowing  God  they 
glorify  him  not  as  God,  and  that  they  even  refuse 
to  have  God  in  their  knowledge.  (Rom.  i:  18, 
21,  28.)*  Here  we  discover  the  gospel  beneath  all 
gospels  preached  to  that  silent  listener,  the 
human  heart.  That  God  who  out  of  his  great 
heart-interest  for  humanity  has  been  represented 
in  atonement  by  his  Son,  we  see  here  represented, 
revealing  needs  and  revealing  the  worth  of 
humanity  through  the  Holy  Spirit. 

It  is  his  blessed  office,  also,  to  give  us  con- 
ceptions which  are  good  and  great  and  strong — 
conceptions  of  truth  which  could  not  otherwise 
be  obtained.  In  our  day  we  speak  of  natural 
religions.  Natural  religions  are  not  godless 
religions.  All  that  is  good  in  what  may  be 
termed  natural  religions  is  the  work,  and  always 
has  been  the  work,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart 
of  universal  humanity.  The  great  objection  to 
the  natural  religions  is  not  on  account  of  what  is 
good  in  them,  but  on  account  of  what  is  bad,  or 

♦Revised  version. 


192  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

what  is  left  out  or  wanting.  A  glass  of  cold 
water  is  good,  but  a  glass  of  spring  water  con- 
taining a  dose  of  arsenic  is  ruinous.  A  steam 
engine  may  be  of  great  service,  but  the  steam 
engine  without  steam  is  a  burden.  If  men  would 
obey  this  law  within  their  hearts,  how  speedily 
the  higher  revelation  of  the  Word  would  be  given 
to  them.  Natural  religion  is  a  spark  j  revealed 
religion  is  a  fire. 

II. 

The  Scripture  Revelation. 

*'  As  it  is  written,  things  which  eye  saw  not 
and  ear  heard  not,  and  which  entered  not  into 
the  heart  of  man,  whatsoever  things  God  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  him.  But  unto  us  God 
revealed  them  through  the  Spirit."     (R.  V.) 

I  never  could  have  looked  out  of  the  natural 
eye  and  found  such  beauty,  the  natural  ear  never 
could  have  captured  such  sweet  melodies,  the 
natural  heart  never  could  have  conceived  of  any- 
thing so  gracious,  so  forgiving,  so  gentle,  so 
blessed.  But  God  hath  revealed  that  to  us  by  his 
Spirit. 

The  chief  place  of  this  revelation  is  in  His 
"Word.  It  has  been  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
here  to  open  up  the  secrets  of  the  divine  nature  too. 
One  of  the  sweetest  records  concerning  revival 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  193 

meetings  I  have  heardjin  a  long  time  was  received 
a  little  while  ago  when  a  minister  wrote  me  after 
the  meetings  in  his  city,  and  said,  *'I^met  an 
infidel  book-seller  in  our  city,  and  he  told  me 
to-day  that  there  had  been  a  marvellous  increase 
in  the  sale  of  Bibles  since  the  revival. "  Young 
people  may  well  ponder  the  words  of  John  Rus- 
kin,  ' '  My  mother  forced  me  by  steady,  daily  toil 
to  learn  long  chapters  of  the  Bible  by  heart,  as 
well  as  to  read  every  syllable  through,  aloud, 
hard  names  and  all,  from  G-enesis  to  Apocalypse, 
about  once  a  year,  and  to  that  discipline — patient, 
accurate  and  resolute — I  owe,  not  only  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  book,  which  I  find  occasionally  ser- 
viceable, but  much  of  my  general  power  of  taking 
pains,  and  the  best  part  of  my  taste  in  litera- 
ture." 

This  of  itself  would  be  much,  but  it  is  our 
privilege  to  trace  the  very  thoughts  of  God  in 
this  Book,  as  if  we  could  hear  Him  speak.  And 
that  blessed  spirit  who  so  thoroughly  searches 
us  has  here  given  us  a  description  of  his  own 
gentle  character.  Studying  the  Bible  is  not  like 
reading  or  studying  a  text  book.  When  we 
study  it  with  true  spiritual  insight  we  get  into 
the  stream  of  the  divine  method  and  are  carried 
by  its  current  in  his  own  direction.  Our  course 
is  like  that  of  the  swimmer  rather  than  that 
of  the  diver. 


194  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

My  friend,  let  me  ask  you  some  very  close 
questions  about  this  matter.  Are  you  a 
student  of  the  Bible  ?  Do  you  give  the  Bible 
genuine  heart  study  ?  Do  you  find  your- 
self saying  as  you  read  it,  this  Book  knows  me  ? 
Do  you  seek  to  follow  the  stream  of  teaching, 
placing  your  soul  into  its  current  ?  Do  you  com- 
mit Scripture  to  memory  ?  Have  you  the  habit 
of  remembering  promises  in  times  of  trial  ?  Are 
the  promises  of  God  yea  and  amen  to  you  ?  It  is 
perfectly  surprising  how  vast  the  need  of  a  revival 
in  the  study  of  God's  Word  has  become  in  these 
days  of  printing  presses  when  cheap,  durable, 
beautiful  Bibles  are  so  easily  procured.  It  is  not 
a  most  extraordinary  thing  to  hear  men  in 
intelligent  communities  arising  in  testimony 
meetings  and  quoting  from  the  hymn  book,  when 
Scripture  promises  are  asked  for;  and  as  far  as  I 
can  observe  the  younger  people  do  not  appear  to 
excel  those  of  more  advanced  years  in  this  re- 
spect. We  may  not  expect  that  our  feet  will 
more  accurately  find  the  path  of  life  unless  we 
look  truly  to  the  way  marked  out  for  us. 

It  is  rather  startling  to  hear  from  a  manager  of 
a  large  cathedral  window  manufacturer  in  the 
United  States  that  Bible  scenes  are  not  being 
called  for  as  they  once  were  in  cathedral  windows, 
because  the  windows  require  a  knowledge  of  the 
design   in  order  to  appreciation,  and  exact  Bible 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  193 

« 

knowledge  has  so  fallen  off  that  Bible  scenes  are 
not  called  for.  It  would  be  more  startling  were 
the  evangelical  churches  using  great  quantities 
of  such  windows.  It  is  suggestive  enough  any-^ 
way.  My  friend,  let  us  go  through  the  mere 
wording  of  the  Book,  beyond  the  mere  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  the  Book  says,  and  breathe  the 
very  life  of  God  into  our  souls  as  we  feed  upon 
His  Word. 

Andrew  Murray  lays  great  and  effective  stress 
upon  Jesus'  words,  "Have  faith  in  God."  He 
says,  "Every  special  exhibition  of  the  power  of 
faith  to  the  saints  of  old  was  the  fruit  of  a  special 
revelation  of  God."  My  mother's  word  is  very 
dear  to  me  but  my  mother  herself  is  dearer  to  me 
than  anything  she  ever  said.  The  Holy  Spirit 
brings  to  our  spiritual  sensibilities  the  Divine 
Person  so  that  we  may  see  God  and  live,  hear  God 
and  obey,  feel  God  and  conquer.  The  Book  is  his 
and  he  asserts  the  Book,  but  O,  how  much  more 
is  he  than  the  Book. 


III. 

The  Revealing  of  Self  and  Sin. 

We  can  not  too  positively  emphasize  the  reveal- 
ing of  our  own  natures  to  us  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Lightly  answering  questions  of  deep  moment  ta 


196  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  soul  betrays  an  absence  of  knowledge  con- 
cerning one's  self,  as  well  as  concerning  G-od.  We 
need  a  revealing  of  ourselves  to  ourselves.  We 
become  affected  with  a  moral  listlessness,  hence 
Jesus  calls  upon  us  with  such  words  as  these, 
'  'He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear, "  '  <  Let 
these  things  sink  down  into  your  ears."  The 
Holy  Spirit  may  be  considered  as  unceasingly  ac- 
tive in  executing  the  great  plan  of  salvation 
among  men,  speaking  through  the  ministries  of 
nature,  of  his  Word,  and  of  the  great  variety  of 
providences  both  trying  and  encouraging. 

Strides  of  invention  can  but  faintly  represent 
the  rapid  uncovering  of  one'  s  own  nature  to  the 
willing  soul  by  the  Spirit.  Depths  of  feeling  and 
of  motive  which  have  never  before  been  dreamed 
of  come  to  light  when  his  light  searches  us.  We 
would  be  confused  and  startled  until  all  trust 
would  be  banished,  and  fear  would  hold  the  citadel 
of  the  being  did  he  not  himself  hold  us  while 
searching  us.  Under  this  condition  it  is  blessed 
to  have  the  consciousness  that  the  Holy  One  is 
searching  us,  for  we  know  that  if  anything  were 
found  commendable  he  would  give  it  fullest  credit 
and  whatever  appears  condemnable,  his  mercy 
is  sufficient  and  free  to  provide  deliverance  from 
it.  So  through  our  tears  mercy's  light  is  stream- 
ing. 

Jesus,    referring   to  this    phase  of   his    work. 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  197 

said,  "When  he  the  Spirit  of  Truth  is  come  he 
shall  convince  the  world  of  sin  because  they  be- 
lieve not  on  me."  A  supreme  willingness  to 
know  the  truth  will  speedily  bring  this  convic- 
tion, but  the  truth  itself  can  not  produce  it.  It 
would  appear  that  truth  enough  has  been  told 
and  heard  to  save  ten  thousand  worlds  like  this, 
but  truth  of  itself  has  no  guarantee  of  reception 
by  a  race  of  beings  who  are  rebellious  in  heart. 
It  is  altogether  probable  that  the  devil  knows 
more  truth  than  any  of  us.  And  this  very  fact  con- 
cerning the  impotency  of  truth  alone  may  ex- 
plain why  so  much  good,  wholesome  truth  is  told 
from  the  pulpit  and  in  Sunday  schools  and  prayer 
meetings,  the  home,  etc.,  with  so  little  positive 
good  effect  following  it.  How  many  Christian 
workers  make  it  their  very  hobby,  as  they  say, 
to  tell  the  truth  and  leave  the  consequences  with 
God,  forgetting  that  they  are  to  be  representa- 
tives of  living  power  in  the  truth  rising  above  the 
letter,  into  -the  spirit  which  giveth  life.  And 
the  temptation  here  is  very  evident  to  produce 
steady  and  well  finished  arguments  and  hurl  them 
against  the  enemy  during  the  day's  battle,  to  re- 
turn to  the  broken  rest  of  the  night  disappointed 
and  discouraged  that  such  an  effort  did  not  give 
evidence  of  rich  returns,  forgetting  that  God  is 
not  seeking  so  much  the  golden  vessel  or  the 
scholarly  truth  as  the  truth  which  he  can  wield 


198  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


for  immediate  purposes  of  mercy.  How  often 
the  consecrated  toiler  will  find  the  Lord  using 
that  upon  which  he  reckoned  nothing,  while  that 
which  he  thought  his  choicest  effort  seems  to 
have  fallen  into  disuse.  God  chooses  the  weak 
things. 

This  lack  of  honoring  the  Holy  Spirit  in  teach- 
ing  is  without  doubt  the  greatest  cause  of  the 
absence  of  deep  and  positive  conviction  of  sin 
and  a  very  thorough  turning  from  it  to  righteous- 
ness in  so  many  quarters  to-day  We  may  have 
accomplished  much  more  in  producing  intellect 
than  our  fathers  and  mothers  did,  but  no  amount 
of  intellect  producing  will  make  a  proper  substi- 
tute for  a  broken  heart.  The  soul  can  not  find 
room  for  great  and  deep  gratitude  or  for  that 
mellowness  of  love  which  is  like  a  superior  tone 
to  a  singer,  without  having  the  deeps  of  the 
nature  broken  up  under  the  conviction  of  sin. 

We  may  conclude  pretty  readily  what  the  Holy 
Spirit's  conviction  would  be  like.  If  the  Holy 
Spirit  wrought  the  penitence  recorded  in  the 
51st  Psalm,  away  back  in  the  Jewish  dispensa- 
tion, then  the  conviction  of  sin  as  expressed  in 
that  Psalm  ought  at  least  to  be  matched  by  the 
convictions  in  this  Gospel  day.  If  the  Psalmist 
cries,  ''  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,"  then  noth- 
ing less  should  be  the  penitent's  cry  to-day.  If 
he  says,  < '  Hide  thy  face  from  my  sins  and  blot 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  199 

out  all  mine  iniquities,"  surely  the  conviction 
should  not  be  less  deep  to-day.  If  he  says, 
*' Cast  me  not  away  from  thy  presence, "  surely 
the  cry  should  be  no  less  intense  to-day.  But  one 
must  calmly  read  the  whole  Psalm  to  get  into  its 
sweep. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  and 
when  he  begins  to  assert  what  it  is  to  be 
righteous,  until  the  conscience  realizes  it,  the 
awful  contrast  between  the  soul  and  righteous- 
ness must  appear,  the  wrong  done  against  our 
God  and  the  wrong  done  against  our  fellows  be- 
comes evident  and  under  this  conviction  the  heart 
breaks.  Then  like  the  broken  and  harvestless 
soil  it  receives  the  seed  of  truth  deep  into  itself. 

Do  not  allow  yourself  to  fall  into  the  conviction 
that  your  great  need  is  to  join  the  church  or  to 
leave  off  bad  habits.  You  may  well  need  the  fel- 
lowship of  God's  people  and  you  may  well  leave 
off  all  evil  practices,  but  the  great  need  is  to  have 
your  needs  revealed  by  the  Hoiy  Spirit  and  come 
right  out  to  meet  your  God,  whom  you  must  meet 
some  day  and  who  would  meet  you  in  boundless 
mercy  now.  Our  religious  dangers  are  too  im- 
minent to  permit  of  any  "septic"  treatment. 
Hearken!    God  will  speak  to  you  if  you  will. 


200  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

IV. 

The  Revelation  of  Salvation. 

Having  thus  come  to  deal  not  primarily  with 
the  church,  not  with  the  sacraments,  not 
with  opinions,  but  directly  and  definitely 
with  our  God,  shall  not  our  cry  be  heard 
and  answered,  shall  not  the  great  Physician 
pronounce  a  cure,  shall  not  the  great  Lib- 
erator open  the  prison  doors  and  the  great 
Regenerator  give  us  a  new  heart?  Yes,  truly. 
Miracles  there  have  been  in  all  climates  and  all 
lands,  but  this  miracle  of  grace  will  be  in  your 
heart  And  God  who  created  you  shall  create 
you  anew,  the  motive  shall  be  fixed  upon  him. 
You  shall  have  already  had  a  knowledge  of  him 
present  where  you  are,  but  that  knowledge  made 
you  sad,  for  you  were  condemned.  Now  he  has 
taken  away  your  condemnation,  he  has  done  it ;  it 
is  not  merely  that  your  resolutions  are  stronger 
and  your  purposes  higher,  it  is  that  God  himself 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  hath  done  this  work  for  you 
and  in  you.  A  voice  from  without  us  comes  to 
whisper  our  need  and  a  power  from  without  us 
comes  to  deliver  us  from  the  guilt  of  sin  and  im- 
part to  us  a  new  bent,  a  new  heart,  a  new  life, 
whether  its  coming  be  with  calm  and  quiet  step 
or  amid  crying  and  anguish,  it  comes  to  make  us 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  201 

new.  In  the  courtroom  of  the  divine  we  are 
pronounced  pardoned,  and  more  than  this  the 
self-life  has  been  subdued  to  the  life  which  Christ 
has  brought  us. 

A  young  man  who  was  very  happy  after  his 
conversion  was  telling  me  of  his  rapture  one  day. 
He  had  told  me  when  a  penitent  that  he  had  been 
addicted  to  some  base  secret  sins  and,  being  con- 
cerned that  he  might  be  sure  of  his  deliverance,  I 
said  to  him,  ' '  Well,  I  am  so  glad  to  hear  what 
the  Lord  has  done  for  you.  Now  I  hope  you  have 
conquered  those  secret  habits  you  told  me  about." 
*'Yes,  indeed,"  said  he,  "I  am  saved  above 
those.''  Gradual  or  instantaneous,  it  is  divine.  In 
the  heart  of  the  refined  or  of  the  brutal  it  is 
divine,  in  childhood  or  old  age,  in  the  dying  or 
the  healthful,  it  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
And  it  is  not  only  an  exalted  work  he  does.  It 
is  an  exalting  work — <' saved  above  that." 

V. 

The  Revealing  of  the  Direct  Witness. 

He  will  tell  you  that  he  hath  pardoned  you  and 
received  you  into  his  own  family.  Not  only  must 
a  power  from  without  us  enter  in  to  save  us  but 
a  voice  from  without  must  tell  us  that  we  are 
adopted  into  the  family  of  God,  having  been  freely 
forgiven.     The  same  voice  which  tells  me  I  am  a 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN- LIFE 


sinner  must  tell  me  I  am  forgiven.  The  witness 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  our  salvation  should  surely 
be  as  distinct  as  his  conviction  of  our  guilt. 

1.  He  can  tell  us.  He  has  made  man  capable 
of  telling  truth  to  his  fellows,  of  relying  so  far 
upon  what  he  tells  that  millions  of  dollars  are  in- 
volved in  business  transactions,  and  the  life  is 
jeopardized  in  surgical  operations,  and  all  upon  the 
basis  that  the  main  statements  concerning  either 
the  one  or  the  other  were  understood.  If  God 
has  so  given  us  the  power  to  communicate  with 
each  other,  can  he  himself  not  whisper  his  wit- 
ness in  our  souls  ? 

2.  We  have  the  evidence  of  His  Word.  He  says 
that  if  I  forsake  sin  and  return  unto  him  he  will 
abundantly  pardon.  Humbly  asking  him  to 
search  me  and  show  me  that  I  do  forsake  sin  and 
come  unto  him,  it  is  my  privilege  to  claim  that 
promise  and  reckon  him  as  good  as  his  word;  an- 
swering every  suggestion  of  the  enemy  with, 
"He  said  it." 

3.  We  have  the  evidence  of  the  new  life. 
That  new  life  is  within  us  and  we  know.  We 
are  often  even  sweetly  surprised  to  notice  its  as- 
sertion when  we  were  not  at  the  time  distinctly 
conscious  of  it.  There  it  was  like  a  magnet  holding 
us  to  the  right.  The  swearer  says,  ''Why,  I  do 
not  swear  any  more ;  I  do  not  want  to  swear." 
The  thief  toils  gladly  to  pay  back  what  he   stole, 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  203 

adding  a  bonus  to   it,  so  convinced  is  he   of  the 
worth  of  this  new  treasure. 

4.  We  have  the  distinct  witness  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God.  Of  course  we  do  not  mean  by  this  that  a 
voice  is  heard  through  the  outward  ear  proclaim- 
ing the  great  fact,  but  a  sure  sweet  witnessing 
— ''softer  than  silence,"  is  heard  in  the  soul  and 
we  know  it  to  be  the  divine  voice.  The  natural 
man  will  not  understand  this.  But  he  may  if  he 
will  give  himself  to  it  for  ' '  The  Spirit  himself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirits."  Dear  reader, 
have  you  long  sought  this  in  the  belief  that  some 
distinct  experience  should  be  yours,  yet  you  had 
never  gained  it  ?  Let  me  urge  you  to  remember 
that  you  are  to  hearken  unto  God.  Hearken, 
hearken.  Let  your  soul  hearken.  Be  not  impa- 
tient, you  shall  know  his  voice.  The  fault  can  not 
be  in  his  voice,  it  is  in  your  hearing.  But  be 
sure  that  you  believe  on  Jesus  with  all  your 
heart,  wanting  to  be  his  own  child  more  than  you 
want  anything  or  all  things  else.  Be  as  deeply 
eager  for  this  as  for  food  when  hungry  or  drink 
when  thirsty,  then  quietly  cease  trying  and  be- 
lieve in  his  goodness,  great  enough  to  pronounce 
you  his.  Your  listening  soul  shall  say,  God  hath 
spoken.  It  is  done.  Israel  begged  at  the  foot  of 
Sinai  not  to  hear  his  voice,   but  you  having  for- 


204  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

saken  all  sin,  may  well   say  with  the  rapture  of 
faith,  ' '  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth. 

VI 

The  Revelation  in  the  G-odly  Life. 

Adopted  child  of  G-od,  the  treasures  of  all  wealth 
for  two  worlds  have  been  opened  unto  you;  be- 
gin to  take  inventories  quickly,  and  begin  to  lay 
claim  to  your  vast  possessions,  for  in  your  fa- 
ther's household  all  this  which  hath  been  opened 
for  you,  and  in  you,  and  by  you,  is  but  the  initial 
work  of  the  Holy  One.  That  which  has  been 
done  by  you,  did  I  say  ?  Yes,  for  even  your  re- 
pentence  as  we  have  before  seen  may  have  saved 
another. 

Now  what  claims  of  faith  are  not  only  freely 
granted,  but  urged  by  the  same  blessed  Spirit 
upon  your  heart's  reception.  You  are  to  expect 
eternal  glory.  A  million  years  to  come  you  are 
to  be  a  pure,  well-informed,  exultant  minister  of 
the  King  of  Kings,  sharing  the  meaning  of  Cal- 
vary with  the  Son  of  G-od,  free  from  sin  and 
death,  forever  to  associate  with  holy  and  glori- 
fied beings.  But  this  is  not  all,  I  had  almost  said 
this  were  little.  It  is  true  that  this  could  not  be 
if  it  were  sought  for  merely  as  a  possession  or  an 
attainment.       You  are  called   to  holiness.     The 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  205 

subdued  self-life  is  to  be  rooted  out  and  abandoned 
and  your  soul  is  to  be  the  channel  through  which 
the  very  Spirit  of  Christ  the  Saviour  is  to  be 
poured  for  the  cleansing  and  refreshing  of  your 
fellow  men.  Did  you  receive  the  Holy  Ghost 
when  you  believed?  Did  you  receive  this  gift 
by  faith?  Now,  I  dare  not  forbear  to  ask  you 
this  question.  You  may  make  the  mistake  which 
I  made  for  years,  and  answer  with  some  general 
assertions  about  being  saved.  May  the  gentle- 
ness of  our  God  lead  you  in  a  better  way.  Do 
not  bother  about  opinions  and  discussions  until 
you  are  confused.  Let  God  himself  anoint  you. 
His  deeper  revealing  is  followed  with  his  mightier 
power.  His  Calvary  is  succeeded  by  his  Pente* 
cost. 

There  is  a  further  revealing  of  the  results  of 
his  great  work  within  us.  It  is  effected  upon  our 
characters,  and  will  be  more  apparent  to  others 
than  to  ourselves;  these  results  are  called  his 
fruits.  When  Christ  is  the  vine  and  we  are  the 
branches,  what  beauty  must  adorn  the  life. 
Behold  the  luscious  fruit  which  garnishes  this 
kind  of  life.  Now,  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love, 
joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness, 
fidelity,  meekness,  self-control.  And  this  fruit 
grows  upon  this  kind  of  a  tree.  These  graces 
work  out  of  this  kind  of  a  life  as  naturally  as  apples 


206  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

grow  on  an  apple  tree,  while  the  blessed  Spirit 
changes  the  arctic  into  the  tropic  life. 

Years  ago,  as  a  young  preacher  in  a  country- 
village,  I  used  to  receive  many  gentle  courtesies 
in  the  homes  of  godly  people.  As  I  count  them 
over  in  memory  I  think  that  no  man  in  the  world 
owes  so  much  to  the  kind  and  forbearing  people 
of  God  as  the  young  minister.  As  with  many  of 
my  brethren,  a  few  of  these  homes  used  to  be 
called  "my  home."  One  of  these  was  with  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  B.  This  couple  had  a  reputation  for 
unusual  cheerfulness  and  general  kindness.  One 
day  I  drove  down  the  street,  passing  the  front 
window  of  their  home  to  the  gate  leading  up  to 
the  drive-house.  As  I  passed  the  home  I  saw  in 
the  window  a  large  oleander,  literally  loaded  with 
blossoms.  Hurrying  from  my  buggy  and  rap- 
ping at  the  door,  I  was  soon  greeted  by  Mrs.  B. 
When  I  said,  "  Where  did  you  get  that  oleander?" 
she  laughed,  and  interjected  many  questions 
about  my  health,  and  the  meetings,  and  the  work 
in  general,  and  laughed  again.  Then  she  invited 
me  into  the  parlor  where  the  oleander  was,  to 
take  a  good  look  at  it,  and,  as  she  naively  said, 
to  smell  of  the  blossoms.  Crossing  the  threshold, 
I  began  to  express  my  delight,  when  Mrs.  B. 
said,  "Smell  it,  smell  it."  Drawing  near  to  the 
plant,  I  took  one  of  the  blossoms  by  the  stem 
between  my  fingers,  to  draw  it  up  to  my  face  so 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  207 

that  I  might  catch  a  little  of  its  sweetness,  when 
behold  you,  I  found  that  it  was  made  of  tissue 
paper!  Imagine  my  surprise.  The  plot  had  suc- 
ceeded. Mr.  and  Mrs.  B.  enjoyed  "the  sell," 
rather  than  < '  the  smell, ' '  and  referred  to  it  with 
great  cheer  for  many  days. 

Now,  I  fear  this  is  what  a  great  many  Christian 
people  are  doing;  they  are  trying  to  tie  on  graces. 
Here  is  a  quick-tempered  person  who  says,  ' '  Now, 
I  will  be  kind  after  this."  Here  is  a  cheerless 
nature  and  he  says,  ' '  Henceforth  I  am  going  to 
be  cheerful; "  here  is  a  hopeless  soul  and  he  says, 
"It  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  good,  and 
it  is  always  darkest  before  dawn,  so  I  will  cheer 
myself  up  and  be  hopeful."  Now,  my  friends, 
you  can  not  do  it.  And  for  two  reasons.  First, 
this  being  kinder,  is  not  Christian  love,  this  be- 
ing more  cheerful  is  not  Christian  joy,  and  this 
quoting  of  proverbs  which  any  heathen  could 
quote  is  not  Christian  hope.  And  in  the  second 
place  we  can  not  do  these  very  things  we  have  re- 
solved.    We  can  not 

"  Fold  away  our  fears, 

And  put  by  our  foolish  tears, 
And  through  all  the  coming  years 
Just  be  glad." 

But  get  God's  life  within  you,  be  separate  unto 
God,  planted  in  the  new  soil,  step  over  into  the 


208  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

summer  life,  live  on  the  south  side  of  opportunity 
where  the  warm  showers  fall  and  the  fruit  of  the 
spirit  will  appear  in  your  lives  as  naturally  as  the 
fruit  on  the  trees. 


VII. 

Special  Revelations  to  Faith. 
Conversion  is  the  June-day  of  character.  The 
wheat  is  in  "the  milk."  Now,  it  should  con- 
stantly grow  and  mature  until  hard  and  golden. 
But  there  should  be  special  days  when  the  heavy 
wheat  heads  bend  lowly  under  the  warm  and 
copious  shower,  days  also  when  they  lift  their 
foody  weight  jeweled  with  dew-drops  straight  up 
to  the  beaming  sun,  like  victorious  rescuers  sight- 
ing their  home  city.  And  there  should  come, 
too,  days  of  speedy  ripening  when  the  children 
note  the  changes  on  their  way  home  from  the 
country  school  and  call  out  to  their  father  that  the 
field  over  the  hill  is  almost  ripe — so  changed  in  a 
day.  Such  noted  changes  in  character  should 
mark  the  time  between  the  transforming  June 
day,  when  straw  is  no  longer  only  straw,  but 
wheat  has  appeared,  though  in  embryo;  and  those 
harvest  days  when  the  sheaves  lean  into  each 
other's  arms  as  the  husbandman  approaches  with 
his  wagon.     O,  blessed  life  I 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  209 

And  now  what  riches  are  ours  in  the  treasury 
of  prayer.  Why  the  Lord  should  have  called  us 
into  this  privilege  of  holy  consultation  with  him- 
self we  can  not  tell,  excepting  that  he  loves  us  so. 
You  ask  for  pardon  and  get  it,  you  ask  for  a  new 
heart  and  a  place  in  the  Father's  family  and  get 
it,  you  have  taken  many  promises  from  his  Word 
and  cashed  them  at  the  wicket  of  prayer.  Now, 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  both  the  writer  of  the  check 
and  cashier  in  God's  great  treasury.  He  will  tell 
you  the  amount  to  write  on  the  different  checks. 
He  will  tell  you  whether  Jesus'  name  can  go  on  a 
check  of  such  and  such  an  amount  for  you  or  not, 
and  having  given  you  the  check  written  out  and 
the  endorsement  of  Jesus,  nothing  in  earth  or 
hell  can  defeat  your  petition. 

'<  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  7iame,  that 
will  I  do.  If  ye  shall  ask  me  anything  in  my 
name,  that  will  I  do.  That  whatsoever  ye  shall 
ask  the  Father  in  my  name,  He  may  give  it  you. 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you  if  ye  shall  ask  any- 
thing of  the  Father,  He  will  give  it  you  in  my 
name.  Hitherto  ye  have  asked  nothing  in  my 
name;  ask  and  ye  shall  receive.  In  that  day  ye 
shall  ask  in  my  name.""  John  xiv:  13,  14,  xv: 
16,  xvi:  23,  24,  26.  To  ask  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
is  to  truly  represent  Jesus.  If  an  attorney  does 
anything  in  the  name  of  a  business  firm  he  must 
represent  the  thought  and  the  business  plan  of 


210  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  firm  he  represents.  He  must  be  as  nearly  as 
possible  an  endorsement  of  all  the  principles  of 
the  firm  which  relate  to  the  undertaking  com- 
mitted to  him.  Upon  the  guarantee  of  good  faith 
he  is  trusted  with  his  commission.  So  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  slain  our  self -life  until  it  is  all 
our  passion  to  carry  out  the  programme  of  Jesus 
and  represent  his  principles  at  any  cost,  he  will 
surprise  us  with  new  checks,  which  he  will  write  for 
us  day  by  day,  and  we  shall  return  after  the  day 
is  spent,  filled  with  holy  joy  as  we  recount  how  he 
has  led  us  to  ask  and  receive  his  special  gifts, 
thus  declaring  that  our  fellowship  with  him  is 
truly  established. 

Evidently  this  is  the  place  where  William  Tay- 
lor stood  when  they  asked  him  to  pray  for  rain, 
and  he  replied  that  ''He  would  suggest  it  to  the 
Father,"  and  where  George  Miiller  stood  when 
he  said,  "To-day  I  have  had  it  very  much  laid  on 
my  heart,  no  longer  merely  to  thi9ik  about  the 
establishment  of  an  Orphan  Home,  but  actually 
to  set  about  it,  and  I  have  been  very  much  in 
prayer  respecting  it,  in  order  to  ascertain  the 
Lord's  mind.  May  God  make  it  plain."  God  did 
make  it  plain,  and  the  Bristol  Home  costing 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars  and  accommodating 
three  hundred  children  was  opened  nearly  forty 
years  ago.  This,  too,  was  the  place  where  he 
stood  when   he  wrote  in  his  diary  December  26, 


THE  SEVEN-FOLD  REVEALING  211 

1850:  *'  I  desire  to  be  allowed  to  provide  scrip- 
tural instruction  for  a  thousand  orphans  instead 
of  doing  so  for  three  hundred.  I  desire  that  it 
may  be  yet  more  abundantly  manifest  that  God 
is  still  the  Hearer  and  Answerer  of  prayer,  and 
that  he  is  the  living  God  now  as  he  ever  was  and 
ever  will  be,  when  he  shall  simply,  in  answer  to 
prayer,  have  condescended  to  provide  me  with  a 
house  for  seven  hundred  orphans  and  with  means 
to  support  them.  This  last  consideration  is  the 
most  important  point  in  my  mind.  The  Lord's 
honor  is  the  principal  point  with  me  in  this  whole 
matter;  and  just  because  this  is  the  case,  if  He 
would  be  more  glorified  by  my  not  going  forward 
in  this  business,  I  should  by  His  grace  be  perfectly 
content  to  give  up  all  thoughts  about  another 
Orphanage  House.  Surely,  in  such  a  state  of 
mind,  obtained  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  thou,  O  my 
Heavenly  Father,  loilt  not  suffer  thy  child  to  be 
mistaken,  much  less  deluded.  By  the  help  of  God 
I  shall  continue  further,  day  by  day,  to  wait  upon 
Him  in  prayer,  concerning  this  thing,  till  He  shall 
bid  me  act."  To-day  George  Miiller,  the  aged, 
tells  to  the  glory  of  the  Father  how  upwards  of 
three  millions  of  dollars  have  been  passed  through 
his  hands  in  answer  to  prayer,  and  without  solic- 
iting from  man  for  the  support  of  orphans ;  and 
about  two  millions  more  for  charities  and  missions 
and  other  means  of  help  to  humanity. 


213  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


Dear  child  of  Glod,  the  Holy  Spirit  invites  us  to 
prove  what  great  things  He  will  do  for  us  and 
through  us  for  others.  Do  not  try  to  be  a  wonder- 
worker and  thus  give  the  self -life  advantage,  but 
just  seek  His  will  and  you  shall  prove  the  wealth  of 
the  prayer-privilege.  Study  how  Jesus  went 
alone  to  pray  before  and  after  some  special  event. 
Note  how  obedient  He  is  to  the  Father's  will  and 
come  boldly  unto  the  throne  in  His  name. 

2.  He  will  lead  us.  ' '  As  many  as  are  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  G-od  they  are  the  Sons  of  God."  If 
you  or  I  ought  to  be  in  China  then  there  is 
a  vacant  place  in  China  which  no  one  else  can  fill. 
If  you  or  I  ought  to  be  hidden  away  like  the  tim- 
bers under  the  floor,  then  there  is  a  weakness  in 
the  floor  which  no  one  else  can  strengthen  but  you 
or  me.  Rush  not  hastily  to  human  advisers. 
Hearken,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  whisper  to  you  and 
his  whispering  in  your  heart  will  accord  with  his 
whispering  in  his  own  Word. 

Let  us,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  says,  ' '  Practice  the 
presence  of  God  truly." 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERT- 
ING JESUS. 


"Love  is  the  only  remedy.  Trustfulness  and  good 
will  are  the  only  irresistible  weapons.  God  himself 
tames  and  saves  us  by  making  his  sun  to  shine  upon  the 
evil  and  upon  the  good,  and  by  sending  the  rain  upon 
the  just  and  the  unjust.  Let  us  place  ourselves  at  the 
divine  standpoint.  Let  us  also  be  '  well  pleased '  with 
all  men,  as  capable  of  redemption  and  salvation  and 
Christlikeness.  Let  us  approach  them  hopefully,  trust- 
fully, tenderly.  Let  the  carol  of  the  Nativity  echo  in 
our  souls,  in  our  words,  and  in  our  deeds." 

Hugh  Peice  Hughes. 

"Bui  when  the  comforter  is  come  whom,  1  will  send 
imto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth  which 
proceedeth  from  the  Father,  he  shall  hear  witness  of  me. 

He  shall  glorify  me:  for  he  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall 
declare  it  unto  you.'' — John  xv:26;  xvi:14.  (R.V.) 

"We  speak  about  social  righteousness,  but  for  each 
person  a  beginning  is  found  in  personal  salvation.  It  is 
safe  to  give  this  advice:  Bring  yourself  into  right  rela- 
tions with  God;  that  is  the  beginning  of  all  things. 
Through  this  right  relationship  with  God  seek  to  enter 
into  right  relations  with  your  fellows.  Humanitarian- 
ism  by  itself — that  is  to  say,  humanitarianism  which 
does  not  rest  back  upon  God — is  as  unstable  as  the 
sands.'  Peof.  Richaed  T.  Ely 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS. 

\ IT" HEN  the  disciples  were  journeying  toward 
^  ^  Emmaus  and  Christ  met  them  as  a  stranger, 
it  was  not  because  his  own  essential  presence  was 
not  there  that  he  appeared  as  a  stranger,  but  it 
was  because  their  eyes  were  not  opened.  So  it  is 
said,  ' '  Their  eyes  were  holden  that  they  should 
not  know  him."  Later  it  is  said,  "Their  eyes 
were  opened  and  they  knew  him."  That 
same  Spirit  will  open  our  eyes  to-day  to  know 
Jesus!  Many  of  us  covet  an  hour  when  we 
might  look  upon  him  in  some  physical  form, 
and  we  think  that  that  would  be  one  of  the 
chiefest,  richest  hours  we  could  know,  at  least 
this  side  of  death.  Just  to  look  upon  him  for  an 
hour,  or  to  touch  a  physical  hand  moved  by  his 
own  spirit,  dwelling  in  the  body  which  wielded 
the  hand.  But  to  you  and  me  is  positively  grant- 
ed a  privilege  of  realization  and  understanding  of 
Jesus,  exceedingly  superior  to  anything  like  that. 
Christ  has  never  been  so  gloriously  asserted  as  he 
has  been  since  his  ascension,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
the  souls  of  men  and  women,  brought  home  by  the 
Divine  Illuminator  and  Teacher.    No  wonder  that 


216  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Luke  calls  the  Holy  Ghost   "The  Spirit  of  Jesus." 
Acts  xvi:  7,  etc. 

If  you  were  to  talk  to  me  about  the  habits  of 
the  birds  of  paradise,  I  could  not  converse  intelli- 
gently with  you.  I  do  not  know  much  about 
them,  do  not  know  what  kind  of  food  they 
prefer  or  the  kind  of  nests  they  build.  I  have 
only  seen  some  of  them.  You  might  pro- 
ceed with  your  descriptions  and  I  should  sit  still 
and  receive  the  instruction,  but  I  could  not  intel- 
ligently answer  you  in  return.  There  would  be 
no  reciprocity  in  the  conversation;  you  would  be 
the  teacher  and  I  would  be  the  pupil — well  enough 
for  a  beginning  only. 

And  is  not  this  often  just  the  way  it  is  with 
our  relation  to  Christ  ?  We  hear  of  his  wonder- 
ful mission  and  we  are  greatly  interested  in  his 
wonderful  sayings  and  in  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion; but  we  are  called  to  have  fellowship  with 
him,  we  are  called  to  have  Christly  motives  mov- 
ing our  motives,  so  that  instead  of  his  atonement 
being  a  distant  event,  our  hearts  have  the  aton- 
ing love  in  them,  and  instead  of  our  hearing 
about  it  with  a  distant  kind  of  admiration,  Christ 
liveth  in  us.  Let  me  again  impress  upon  your 
attention  the  value  of  Christ  not  remaining  lo- 
cally in  the  flesh  in  this  world,  having  one  place 
to  stay,  one  country  to  dwell  in,  but  that,  having 
gotten   through    with    the  local     expression    by 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      217 

which  the  dullness  of  human  vision  was  cleared, 
he  has  gone  into  the  invisible  expression  of  him- 
self, that  he  may  be  revealed  to  every  heart  and 
incarnated  in  every  life.  Christ  in  you,  the  mys- 
tery hid  from  the  ages ;  ^ '  Christ  in  you,  the  hope 
of  glory." 

How  rapidly  we  may  learn  if  the  teacher  dwells 
with  us  day  and  night  and  is  an  infallible  teacher. 
If  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  manifest  the  Christ  unto 
our  souls'  vision,  the  manifestation  must  be  very 
distinct  and  unmistakable.  O,  to  look  upon  him 
with  the  eyes  of  the  soul!  O,  to  see  him  and 
know  he  is  here !  O,  to  realize  his  heart  throb 
against  our  hearts,  and  to  truly  say,  ' '  This  is 
Jesus."  It  is  the  Holy  Spirit's  office  thus  to  re- 
veal him  to  us.  Did  I  say  to  us  ?  This  is  not 
enough.  It  is  the  Holy  Spirit's  office  to  reveal 
Jesus  in  us.  Paul  says  it  pleased  G-od  to  reveal 
his  son  in  him,  and  he  goes  on  to  tell  how,  though 
he  was  as  one  born  out  of  due  time,  yet  he  had 
seen  Christ,  he  had  him  revealed  in  him.  That 
heart  of  Paul  which  had  been  so  murderous,  self- 
ish and  Cain-like,  Christ  was  verily  revealed 
within  it.  Hence  his  missionary  zeal.  And  yet 
that  word  "  zeal  "  is  a  very  limp  word  when  ap- 
plied to  Paul.  It  was  a  missionary  Christ-i-za- 
tion.  He  simply  got  the  world  on  his  soul,  be- 
cause the  Christ,  the  world's  Redeemer,  was  re- 
vealed in  his  soul.     He  did  not  look  off  upon  the 


218  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

distant  Christ,  but  to  the  Christ  within  him. 
Such  a  realization  of  Jesus  was  well  illustrated  by 
a  young  man  in  the  South  whose  former  life  had 
been  wayward.  Some  time  after  his  conversion 
he  came  to  a  trying  hour  of  darkness,  and  upon 
telling  of  the  trial  he  said,  ' '  I  looked  deep  into 
my  consciousness  and  I  found  the  same  Jesus  still 
there,  so  I  took  heart  again."  This  young  man's 
faith  had  evidently  been  based  upon  the  true  teach- 
ing that  Christ  comes  into  the  life.  The  Holy 
Spirit  of  Pentecost  had  made  the  realization  act- 
ual, definite  and  powerful. 

Speaking  of  the  day  when  those  men  took  their 
journey  to  Emmaus,  and  said,  "Did  not  our  hearts 
burn  within  us,  while  he  talked  with  us  by  the 
way,  and  while  he  opened  to  us  the  Scriptures." 

A  little  boy  committing  that  verse  to  memory 
one  day  recited  it  this  way :  ' '  Did  not  our  hearts 
burn  within  us,  while  he  talked  with  us  by  the 
way,  and  while  he  opened  us  to  the  Scriptures," 
instead  of  ' '  While  he  opened  to  us  the  Scriptures. " 
His  father  said,  "  No,  my  boy,  that  is  not  right," 
and  he  tried  it  again,  stumbling  into  it  the  same 
way.  Next  evening  the  father  was  reading  his 
Bible  at  this  very  place  and  as  he  read  on  he 
noticed  the  forty-fifth  verse  of  that  last  chapter  of 
Luke,  "  Then  opened  he  their  understandings  that 
they  might  understand  the  Scriptures,"  and  he 
said,  "It  is  right;  he  opens   the  Scriptures  unto 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      219 

US,  and  he  opens  us  unto  the  Scriptures."  A 
great  many  people  have  the  former  who  have  not 
received  the  emphasis  of  the  latter.  Bengel's 
motto  was,  "Apply  thyself  wholly  to  the  Scrip- 
tures and  apply  the  Scriptures  wholly  to  thyself  " 
— true  reciprocity. 

But  how  often  the  character  of  Jesus  is  a 
great  historical  character  looked  upon  with  admi- 
ration. We  love  to  hear  him  sung  about,  we  love 
to  hear  his  name  taken  reverently  upon  human 
lips,  and  we  say 

"Sweetest  note  in  seraph  song, 
Sweetest  name  on  mortal  tongue." 

But  it  is  another  thing  to  have  the  soul  get  the 
life  of  the  atonement  right  into  it,  until  we  are 
the  very  lungs  and  Christ,  the  very  breath, 
until  we  are  the  very  veins  and  Christ  the  very 
blood,  the  life,  the  tone  of  our  beings.  May  the 
Holy  Grhost  bring  Jesus  near.  May  he 
bring  Jesus  in  us.  May  he  reveal  him  soon  in 
us. 

The  old  self-life  is  so  alive,  so  quick,  so  vigor- 
ous, and  by  common  standards  would  be  called  so 
healthy,  so  robust,  so  sturdy!  May  the  Holy 
Spirit  impart  the  receiving  faith  to  us  this  hour. 

Dear  re  ader,  the  Christian  life  is  not  the  apply- 
ing of  the  teachings  of  Christ  or  even  the  applying 
of  the  principles  of  Christ  to  our  lives.  It  is  not  an 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


application ;  it  is  a  realization.  ' '  He  that  hath  the 
Son  hath  Life."  The  word  here  translated  life  is 
"^0€,"  meaning  the  life  which  is  peculiar  to  God, 
or  God-life.*  The  Christian  life  then  is  a  new  life. 
Instead  of  the  applying  of  the  principles  of  Christ, 
it  is  through  them,  the  "Christ  in  you."  For 
this  direct  realization  of  himself,  he  has  provided 
abundantly  in  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Hear 
him  say,  ' '  But  when  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom 
I  will  send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the 
spirit  of  truth  which  proceedeth  from  the  Father, 
he  shall  testify  of  me."    John  xv:  26. 

He  shall  glorify  me,  for  he  shall  receive  of 
mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you.     John  xvi:  14. 

Select  from  those  verses  these  words,  Jesus' 
own  words:  "He  shall  testify  of  me,  he  shall 
glorify  me,  for  he  shall  receive  of  mine  and  shall 
show  it  unto  you."  What  great  words;  SHOW, 
TESTIFY,  GLORIFY. 

We  can  imagine  him  saying,  twenty  centuries 
hence  there  will  be  companies  of  people  gathered 
together,  and  they  will  be  looking  back  over  the 
years  to  Palestine,  counting  my  footsteps,  as  I 
trod  up  and  down  through  the  cities  and  villages 
and  across  the  valleys.  They  will  read  my  words, 
and  delight  to  know  how  I  came  forth  from  the 
Father  to  save  the  world ;  but  they  will  rather  be 
looking  back  over  the  centuries  and  they  will  have 
a  dim  realization  of  my  presence,   my    life,    my 

*So  used  throughout  the  New  Testament,  175  times  at  least. 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS       221 

vigor  among  them ;  they  will  be  talking  very  much 
of  the  cross,  but  they  will  be  prone  to  forget  that 
I  am  alive  forever  more.  I  will  not  belittle  the 
cross  or  the  atoning  work  I  am  to  do,  but  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  come  and  assert  me,  show  me,  declare 
me,  glorify  me.  Men  shall  know  me  without  the 
fleshly  outfit,  which  I  now  carry  as  my  body. 
They  shall  see  me  and  hear  me  and  they  shall 
live,  yet  not  they,  I  shall  live  in  them. 

Is  it  because  we  fear  we  may  belittle  the  cross 
of  Christ  that  men  so  often  refer  to  the  days  when 
He  was  here?  As  if  He  had  come  and  gone. 
Now  it  was  necessary  for  Him  to  emphasize  what 
should  occur,  after  His  physical  form  would  dis- 
appear, hence  He  told  the  disciples  that  He  would 
return  unto  the  Father  and  repeated  the  same 
truth  again  and  again.  It  was  equally  necessary 
that  the  office  of  the  intercessor  should  be  clearly 
assumed  by  Him,  for  especially  the  Jewish  mind 
demanded  it  after  fifteen  centuries  of  training 
under  that  system  of  religion.  But  He  just  as 
plainly  teaches  His  living,  abiding  presence  with 
us,  as  he  does  His  going  unto  the  Father  and  His 
intercession.  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also. 
John  xiv:19.  If  a  man  love  me  we  will  come 
unto  Him  and  make  our  abode  with  Him.  John 
xiv:23. 

That  the  love  wherewith  thou  hast  loved  me 
may  be  in  them  and  I  in  them.     John  xvii:  26. 


S22  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world.    Matt,  xxviii:  20. 

Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them.  Matt, 
xviii:  20. 

If  any  man  hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door  I 
will  come  in  to  him  and  will  sup  with  him.  Rev. 
iii:  20. 

Our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with  his 
son  Jesus  Christ.     1  John  i:  3. 

Christ  liveth  in  me.     Gal.  ii :  20. 

Christ  is  infinite  and  everywhere.  Christ  is  as 
truly  in  this  room  as  he  is  in  heaven.  We  have 
made  him  the  dead  Christ.  We  have  made  crosses 
out  of  wood  and  of  metal  and  we  have  made  pictures 
representing  him  dead  and  we  have  been  <  'cling- 
ing to  the  cross,"  to  it  instead  of  him.  Dear 
cross.  Precious  cross.  Yea,  rather,  dear  Jesus. 
Precious  Jesus.  In  the  infinite  plan  thou  wast 
as  truly  the  slain  one  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world  as  when  on  Calvary.  The  cross  did  not 
make  thee  great.  Thou  hast  made  the  cross. 
The  weak  wood  thou  didst  exalt,  as  thou 
dost  the  weak  human  soul.  Christ  of  Beth- 
lehem, Christ  of  Calvary,  Christ  of  America, 
Christ  of  the  world.  Thou  walkest  in  our  streets, 
thou  sittest  in  our  chairs,  thou  speakest  to  our 
storms.  The  centuries  have  not  out- run  thee. 
The   newest  thoughts  and  the  freshest  tides  of 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      223 

life,  that  flow  out  over  our  activities  to-day,  are 
thine  own.  Thou  modern  Christ.  Thou  eternal 
Christ.     Here.      * '  But  a  day  old. " 

Are  we  yet  living  only  in  the  first  throes  of 
the  Protestant  reformation;  still  Roman;  still 
holding  to  the  dead  Saviour,  with  a  great  strug- 
gle for  regenerating  grace  ?  How  sadly  we  need 
to-day  to  show  humanity  about  us  that  our  Christ 
lives,  that  he  lives  in  us  and  that  he  lives  through 
us,  that  men  may  very  well  see  that  we  let  our 
light  so  shine,  that  we  glorify  our  Father  in 
Heaven.  We  will  never  get  a  very  definite  asser- 
tion of  Christ  before  the  world  in  any  age,  unless 
we  honor  the  Holy  Spirit.  Truth  is,  these  eyes 
of  ours  will  open  to  no  other  touch  but  the  touch 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  look  upon  the  vision  of 
Jesus;  and  these  hearts  of  ours  will  open  to  no 
other  key  but  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  let  the 
Christ  dwell  in  us  richly.  The  apostle  said,  ''  He 
that  descended  is  the  same  that  ascended,  that  he 
might  fill  all  things."  This  earth  is  within  the 
sweep  of  that  sentence.  He  shall  testify  of  him, 
he  shall  declare  him,  he  shall  make  him  known. 
This  strange  cry  of  the  heart  after  the  divine  as 
it  is  represented  in  Jesus,  Immanuel,  the  Man  of 
Galilee — this  strange  cry  of  the  heart  shall  be 
hushed  into  a  calm  realization,  which  says,  '<I 
know  him,  Jesus  is  mine  and  I  am  his." 

You  see  very  readily  what  an  effect  this  will 


224  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

have  upon  the  statement  sometimes  made,  that  if 
you  emphasize  the  teaching  concerning  the  Holy 
Spirit  you  overlook  Jesus.  Nay,  rather,  if  you 
emphasize  the  teaching  concerning  the  Holy 
Spirit  you  reveal  Jesus.  Let  us  receive  the  gift 
and  get  the  assertion  of  Christ  in  our  souls 
clearly. 

The  idea  of  receiving  a  blessing  from  God  is 
used  very  much  more  in  the  Old  Testament  than 
in  the  New.  Not  that  it  is  entirely  left  out  of  the 
New  Testament,  for  here  the  word  is  used,  but 
more  especially  in  speaking  of  the  help  man  is  to 
give  to  man,  rather  than  the  life  man  is  to  re- 
ceive from  Grod.  The  word  "  blessed, "  meaning 
little  more  than  happy,  is  used  in  a  more  general 
way  in  the  New  Testament  than  either  the  word 
"  bless  "  or  ''blessing."  The  reasons  seem  quite 
evident. 

First,  the  word  *' bless"  is  too  distant  in  its 
meaning  and  too  weak.  Literally  it  means  '  *  to 
speak  well  of."  Use  has  given  the  word  a  deeper 
meaning,  but  this  latest,  largest,  fullest  ex- 
pression of  Grod,  the  Holy  Spirit,  has  outgrown 
the  word  in  its  best  accepted  meaning. 

And,  again,  the  full-orbed  Christian  experience 
as  expressed  in  the  New  Testament  is  rather  an 
experience  of  right  relations  than  of  compli- 
mentary announcements.  God  has  come  to  us 
and  drawn  us  to  himself,  and  we  are  not  so  called 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      225 

to  receive  what  he  will  do  as  through  what  he 
will  do  and  has  done  to  receive  himself,  even  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Hence,  Jesus  said,  ' '  Come  after 
me. "  ' '  We  will  make  our  abode  with  him. "  < '  I 
in  them  and  thou  in  me,"  and  ''  I  will  send  the 
Comforter  that  He  may  abide  with  you."  This  is 
more  than  the  blessing,  it  is  life  and  life  from 
person  to  person.  Notwithstanding  this  it  is 
easy  enough  for  any  one  to  take  that  point  of 
view  of  the  subject  which  would  cause  the  num- 
bering of  blessings,  "the  first  blessing"  and 
<'the  second  blessing,"  as  Luther  called  it  "  a 
second  conversion,"  or  as  Charles  Wesley,  "a 
second  rest,"  or  as  John  Wesley,  "the  second 
blessing,"  or  as  Andrew  Murray,  "the  second 
crisis,"  the  "second  conviction  "  and  "  the  second 
blessing."     It  is  this,  but  it  is  more. 

But  the  direct  act  of  numbering  does  not  ap- 
pear in  the  New  Testament  and  we  do  well  to 
avoid  as  far  as  possible  the  controversy  which  it 
calls  forth  in  our  day.  The  New  Testament  por- 
trayal of  the  self -life  will  be  found  strong  enough 
to  produce  the  conviction,  if  the  soul  is  willing  to 
be  filled  with  the  fulness  of  God.  Let  those  who 
prefer  the  more  ancient  method  of  expressing  use 
it,  but  personally  I  have  found  the  blessed 
Spirit's  indwelling  transform  my  life  as  a  Chris- 
tian, from  the  grasping  to  the  being  grasped,  and 
from  the  fitful  to  the  steady,  without   emphasis 


226  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

being  laid    upon   the   number   of   the   blessing. 
When  I  said, 

"  Give  me  thyself  from  every  boast — 
From  every  wish  set  free; 
Let  all  I  am  in  thee  be  lost, 
But  give  thyself  to  me," 

then  how  plainly  I  saw  the  struggle  with  the  old 
self-life  against  which  in  my  regeneration  God 
had  given  the  better  life — saw  it  until  I  loathed 
it;  saw  it  until  I  believed  the  Holy  Spirit  would 
slay  it,  and  in  that  belief  I  found  him  fill  my 
soul  with  himself,  causing  Jesus  to  be  the  beaute- 
ous one  to  me  the  first  and  the  last,  the  all  in  all. 
Indeed,  as  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned,  the 
numbering  of  God's  operations  in  the  soul  ceased  to 
teaze  me  from  that  day. 

"He  shall  glorify  me."  These  strange  words 
' '  glory  "  or  "  glorify  "  or  "  glorious, "  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  for  us  to  define  their  meaning.  Glory, 
glory — a  word  so  eagerly  used,  yet  so  mysteriously 
sacred.  We  talk  of  glorifying  the  graves  of  the 
dead  when  we  cover  them  over  with  blooming 
flowers,  we  talk  of  glorifying  a  painting  when  we 
set  the  light  to  shine  so  as  to  bring  out  its  best 
expression.  When  men  and  women  can  find  no 
other  word  with  which  to  express  themselves  they 
say  ««  glory."  When  assembled  people  with  shin- 
ing faces  are  knitted  into  oneness  of  spirit  and  the 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      227 

songs  of  the  hymn  book  seem  lame,  they  raise 
their  voices  and  say  ''glory."  "When  in  the 
death  hour  no  other  word  seems  exactly  to  fit  the 
ecstatic  expression  of  the  victor,  he  will  whisper 
GLORY.  Paul  says  that  there  is  one  glory 
of  the  sun  and  another  glory  of  the  moon 
and  another  glory  of  the  stars;  for  one 
star  differeth  from  another  in  glory.  As  if  to 
say,  there  is  a  kind  of  shine  on  the  sun  we  call 
glory,  and  another  kind  of  shine  on  the  moon  we 
call  glory,  and  another  on  the  stars  we  desig- 
nate glory.  He  also  says  that  we  shall  be 
changed  from  glory  unto  glory  even  as  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord.  Jesus  using  the  same  word 
says  that  the  glory  which  he  had  with  the  Father 
he  gave  unto  his  children,  just  after  he  had  said 
' '  Father  glorify  thou  me  with  the  glory  which  I 
had  with  thee  before  the  world  was."  And  here 
he  uses  it  again  when  he  says,  ''The  Holy  Spirit, 
when  he  comes,  shall  glorify  me. "  Did  I  say  too 
intense  a  thing  when  I  said  we  could  know  Christ 
better  than  they  did  when  he  was  here  in  the 
flesh?  Hearken:  "show,"  "testify,"  "glorify." 
"  He  shall  glorify  me,"  he  shall  turn  the  light 
on  the  picture.  O,  Jesus,  my  Jesus,  how  beau- 
teous thou  art!  The  fairest  among  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand,  my  Jesus,  my  Jesus!  How 
resplendent  thou  art,  glorified  to  even  my  soul  by 
the  Holy  Spirit;  loveliest  of  the  loveliest,  divinest 


228  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

of  the  divinest,  there  is  none  like  thee,  beauteous 
Son  of  God. 

« '  But  if  the  ministration  of  death,  written  and 
engraven  on  stone,  came  with  the  glory,  so  that 
the  children  of  Israel  could  not  look  steadily 
upon  the  face  of  Moses  for  the  glory  of  his  face ; 
which  glory  was  passing  away;  how  shall  not 
rather  the  ministration  of  the  spirit  be  with 
glory  ?  For  if  the  ministration  of  condemnation 
is  glory,  much  rather  doth  the  ministration  of 
righteousness  exceed  in  glory.  For  verily  that 
which  hath  been  made  glorious  hath  not  been 
made  glorious  in  this  respect,  by  reason  of  the 
glory  that  surpasseth.  For  if  that  which  passeth 
away  was  with  glory,  much  more  that  which  re- 
maineth  is  in  glory.  But  we  all,  with  unveiled 
face  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
are  transformed  into  the  same  image  from  glory 
to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit.  2 
Corinthians  3:7-11,  18  (E.  V). 

Let  me  recall  for  you  as  nearly  as  I  can  an  inci- 
dent told  by  an  American  preacher.  In  one  of 
the  families  of  his  parish  was  a  little  girl,  who 
had  been  blind  from  her  infancy.  Surgeons  were 
called  in  to  operate,  but  their  operation  proved 
imsuccessful.  A  second  operation  was  performed 
with  the  same  sad  result.  The  hearts  of  the  par- 
ents were  sore;  they  had  spent  much  money, 
willingly  and  freely;  and  the  child  had  endured 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS      229 

much    pain,    but    she     could   not     see.       Never 
since     her     recollection     could      she    look  upon 
her    mother     or    her     father.       One    day     the 
surgeons     met    the     father    and    said    to   him, 
"We     think     another      operation     would     cure 
the  child."     The  father  said,  ''I  feel  there  is  no 
possible  cure  and  the  pain  she  suffers  nearly  kills 
me."     They  persuaded  him  that  they  had  good 
reason  to  think  some  benefit  might  follow  another 
operation,  and  urged  the  undertaking  of  it.     The 
parents  agreed  to  permit  another  trial,    and  the 
surgeons  were  told  that  they  could  operate  on  the 
child's   eyes   again.      After   the    operation    they 
again   covered    the  little   eyes  to  await  results. 
During  the  interval  the  father  met  the  pastor  and 
said,  '  'Pastor,  will  you  come  over  to  our  house  to- 
morrow morning?  "     The  pastor  in  telling  about 
it  said,  I  had  been  very  busy  that  day  and  before 
I  recalled  to  mind  sufficiently  to  understand  what 
his  request  meant,   I  had   spoken.     Then  I  recol- 
lected that  the  time  was   about  due  to  have  the 
bandages   removed   from  the    child's    eyes,  and  I 
asked  him  when  I  should  come.      He  gave  me  the 
hour.     I  went  a  few  minutes    early,    and  when  I 
entered  the  home  I  was  fairly  overcome  with  the 
suspense,  which  was  evident  on  the  faces  of  the 
parents.     By  and  by  the  surgeons  appeared,  the 
nervous  father  paced  up  and  down  the  floor,  talk- 
ing excitedly.     The  mother  sat  holding  the  little 


330  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

child's  hands  in  her  hands,  the  tears  streaming 
down  her  cheeks.  It  was  a  terrible  moment,  while 
we  waited  tremulously,  intent.  The  physician 
pulled  out  the  pin  from  the  bandage  to  unwind  it 
slowly,  slowly.  Will  she  see?  What  slight  cov- 
erings remainlbetween  the  questions,  will  she  see 
or  wi^l  she  not.  Pleading  looks  were  very  com- 
mon in  that  home  that  morning.  This  was  indeed 
hoping  against  hope.  The  bandages  are  removed, 
and  instantly,  the  little  child,  with  voice  of  per- 
fect rapture,  calls  out,  ''O,  mamma,  mamma, 
mamma,  I  never  thought  you  looked  like  that. 
O,  mamma,  mamma."  Then  turning  to  her  papa, 
<'My  papa,  my  papa,  is  that  my  papa?"  And, 
again  exultant  with  rapture  she  exclaims,  ' '  O, 
the  light,  the  light!"  Many  tears  and  kisses  min- 
gled upon  the  face  of  the  darling  child.  Her  eyes 
had  been  opened  while  the  glory  of  the  light  had 
lit  up  the  surroundings.  How  like  this  is  that 
opening  of  the  vision  of  the  soul  upon  the  Son  of 
God  when  the  Holy  Spirit  comes  into  the  life, 
and  when  he  is  thus  set  forth  in  his  resplendent 
beauty. 

Who  of  us  who  know  him  under  the  revealing 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  not  said,  ' '  Oh,  the  light, 
the  light! "  I  know  a  man  who  had  been  born 
and  reared  a  Boman  Catholic.  That  man  came 
into  a  meeting  one  evening  as  a  seeker  after 
Christ,     He  was  a  florist,  and  had  refined  tastes, 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS       231 

and  when  I  came  near  him  I  said,  "Brother,  how 
much  light  have  you  got  on  the  subject?"  He 
turned  his  face  up  to  me  and  said,  '  'Electric,  elec- 
tric." And  we  may  say,  "Jesus,  I  never  thought 
you  were  like  that!  I  never  thought  you  would 
be  so  real,  I  never  thought  you  would  be  so  near, 
I  never  thought  you  could  be  so  dear  to  my  heart. " 
Mary  and  Martha  and  Lazarus  were  in  the  twi- 
light of  knowledge  compared  with  this  which  my 
soul  has  while  the  Holy  Spirit  glorifies  Christ 
to  it. 

A  gentleman  visiting  one  of  the  art  galleries  of 
Europe  became  so  greatly  interested  in  a  picture 
that  he  studied  it  for  hours.  His  traveling  com- 
panion left  him  to  look  at  other  pictures,  and  re- 
turned several  times  to  see  if  he  was  not  ready  to 
proceed.  Each  time  he  asked  for  a  little  longer 
opportunity  to  study  this  one  great  production. 
By  and  by,  his  companion,  weary  with  waiting 
for  him,  said :  ' '  What  can  you  see  in  that  old 
picture  to  keep  you  so  long?"  The  gentleman 
tried  to  explain  its  merits  and  impress  them  upon 
his  friend's  attention,  but  without  avail.  He  an- 
swered, ' '  I  can  not  see  anything  so  extraordinary 
about  that  picture."  Then  the  gentleman  replied, 
"Don't  you  wish  you  could?"  It  takes  the  inspired 
soul  to  see  the  inspiring  beauty,  and  it  takes  the 
inspired  readei"  to  get  at  the  real  wealth  in  the 
scriptures  and  of  the  Christ  they  present. 


332  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Now  we  need  to  estimate  life  and  its  trials  as 
Christ  does.  We  need  to  feel  about  sin  as  Christ 
does.  Then  every  form  of  its  expression  becomes 
to  us  deadly  and  we  are  glad  to  devote  ourselves 
at  any  cost  to  its  destruction.  The  Calvary- 
spirit  does  not  take  much  time  asking,  ^^W/iat 
harm  is  there  in  itV  It  not  only  undertakes  not 
to  do  wrong  but  the  burden  of  its  fleeting  mo- 
ments is,  ' '  Save  the  wrong-doers  through  the 
right."  We  need  to  feel  about  suffering  and  hard 
knocks  of  persecution  just  as  Christ  does.  Com- 
fort-loving and  ease  never  entered  into  the  pro- 
gramme of  this  ' '  servant  of  all. "  Every  act  of  his 
represents  a  holy  purpose  which  we  mortals 
would  call  bravery  of  the  first  quality. 

Christ  is  our  life,  and  we  are  to  live  him  out. 
Let  us  look  up  calmly  and  say,  '  'This  is  my  Jesus, 
come  let  us  go  out  with  him."  As  one  can  best 
describe  what  frost  is  who  has  lived  in  it  and  felt 
its  tingle,  or  as  one  can  best  prize  music  who  has 
given  himself  to  it,  so  we  who  give  ourselves  over 
unto  Christ  shall  know  him,  witnessed  to  and 
glorified  by  that  Spirit  of  truth  who  searcheth  all 
things,  yea  the  deep  things  of  God.  The  redemp- 
tive life  is  his  own  life  No  distant  admiring 
look  can  produce  it  No  formal  partaking  of 
emblems  can  create  it.  No  inflicted  or  voluntary 
suffering  can  woo  it  to  us.  The  Holy  Spirit  has 
this  work  to  do  and  he  wills  to  do  it  for  and  in 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ASSERTING  JESUS       233 

those  who  receive  him  by  faith.  Truly  see  Jesus 
and  greed  will  be  changed  to  generosity,  ambition 
to  philanthropy  and  fear  to  faith.  Rise  to  his  plane 
of  unstinted  sacrifice  and  no  service  can  be  so  great 
but  that  its  winning  beauty  shall  appear  in  the 
midst  of  toil  and  suffering,  tears  and  blood,  to 
which  its  execution  honors  us  with  a  call.  We 
may  outgrow  our  theories.  We  can  not  outgrow 
Christ. 

Gentle  Holy  Spirit,  our  souls  would  now  receive 
the  witness,  the  declaring  and  the  glorifying  of 
Jesus  within  them.  This  we  are  sure  will  be 
more  than  our  general  conception  of  a  blessing. 
We  would  reverently  pray  with  the  new  convert 
from  heathenism,  ' '  O,  Lord,  make  us  to  sparkle 
all  over  with  Jesus." 


STRENGTHENED  WITH 
POWER. 


"  Did  you  ever  notice  that  all  but  the  heart  of  man 
obeys  God?  If  you  look  right  through  history  you  will 
find  that  this  is  true.  In  the  beginning  God  said,  '  Let 
there  be  light,'  and  there  was  light.  '  Let  the  waters 
bring  forth,'  and  the  water  brought  forth  abundantly. 
And  one  of  the  proofs  that  Jesus  Christ  is  God  is  that 
he  spoke  to  nature,  and  nature  obeyed  him.  At  one 
time  he  spoke  to  the  sea,  and  the  sea  recognized  and 
obeyed  him.  He  spoke  to  the  fig  tree,  and  instantly  it 
withered  and  died.  It  obeyed  literally  and  at  once.  He 
spoke  to  devils,  and  the  devils  fled.  He  spoke  to  the 
grave,  and  the  grave  obeyed  him  and  gave  back  its 
dead.  But  when  he  speaks  to  man,  man  will  not  obey 
him;  that  is  why  man  is  out  of  harmony  with  God,  and 
it  will  never  be  different  until  men  learn  to  obey  God.' 

D.  L.  Moody. 

"  Strengthened  with  power  through  his  spirit  in  the  in- 
ward man  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  through 
faith;  to  the  end  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  may  be  strong  to  apprehend  with  all  the  saints  what 
is  the  breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth,  and  to 
know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye 
may  be  filled  uinto  all  the  fullness  of  Ood.''^ — Ephesians 
iii:16-19.    (R.V.) 

*'I  will  call  over  each  member  of  my  orphanage  in 
my  mind  with  solemn  prayer,  and  search  out  every  per- 
fection of  every  kind;  any  trace  of  the  image  of  God 
which  I  can  discern  in  each,  and  enter  them  on  paper, 
adding  thereto  every  fresh  discovery,  and  then  to  each 
name  affix  a  plan,  denoting  what  is  the  best  method  of 
helping  that  person's  infirmities  and  strengthening  his 
virtues.  If  I  do  not  thus  study  the  tempers  and  dispo- 
sitions of  my  family,  how  unlike  will  my  carriage  be  to 
that  of  my  heavenly  Father  towards  me." 

Mrs.  Mary  Fletcher. 


STRENGTHENED  WITH   POWER. 

Tn  his  address  on  "The  Beauty  of  a  Life  of 
"*•  Service  "  Phillips  Brooks  says,  "Christianity 
has  not  been  tried.  My  friends,  no  man  dares  to 
condemn  the  Christian  faith  to-day  because  it  has 
not  been  tried." 

God  is  surely  calling  to-day  for  a  race  of  men 
and  women  who  will  put  that  unique  form  of  re- 
ligion called  Christianity  to  the  test,  or  rather  to 
the  proof.  He  is  calling  for  a  race  of  people  who 
will  demonstrate  not  only  that  Christianity  is 
capable  of  cultivating  our  religious  powers,  set- 
ting the  heart  at  ease  from  itself  and  giving  lib- 
erty of  soul,  but  that  it  is  capable  of  producing 
serene  lives  filled  with  unrepaid  service  for 
humanity  and  kept  in  the  great  fellowship  of  God 
night  and  day,  moment  by  moment.  We  need  to 
get  a  stirring  conviction  of  the  strength  and 
wealth  of  Christianity,  unreduced,  full  strength. 

Look  at  those  words  of  Paul  In  Ephesians, 
third  chapter,  verses  16,  17,  18  and  19.  Look  at 
the  great  striking  words  which  stand  out  in  that 
passage  of  Scripture  like  great  mountain-peaks. 
Strengthened,  Power,  Spirit,  Inward  man,  Christ, 
Dwell,   Hearts,  Faith,  Eooted,   Grounded,  Love, 


238  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Apprehend,  Saints,  Know,  Filled,  God.  Some 
portions  of  Scripture  run  up  to  a  climax  very  per- 
ceptibly, like  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6;  but  this  one  ap- 
pears like  a  great  perfection,  every  part  of  which 
if  separated  from  the  rest  would  fill  a  world  all  its 
own.  Cut  each  phrase  up  like  a  potato  and  each 
part  will  have  an  eye  in  it  that  will  sprout  and 
bear  fruit.  It  is  refreshing  to  apjjfoach  such 
words  as  these,  for  if  we  are  hungry  we  can  sure- 
ly feed  here.  And  here  is  the  wonder.  All  that 
is  told  of  the  possibilities  of  grace  in  this  text 
hinges  upon  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Let  us  read  it  over  slowly  and  weigh  every  word. 
"That  he  would  grant  you  according  to  the 
riches  of  his  glory,  that  ye  may  be  strengthened 
with  POWER  through  his  spirit  in  the  inward  man ; 
that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  through 
faith;  to  the  end  that  ye,  being  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  may  be  strong  to  apprehend 
with  all  the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length 
and  height  and  depth,  and  to  know  the  love  of 
Christ  which  passeth  knowledge  that  ye  may  be 
filled  unto  all  the  fulness  of  God."     (R.  V.) 

What  about  this  great  inner  man?  Elsewhere 
Paul  calls  attention  to  the  outward  man  perish- 
ing, but  says  that  the  inner  man  is  renewed  day 
by  day.  There  is  an  outward  and  an  inner  man,  the 
husk  and  the  corn.  There  is  a  terrible  insult  to 
this  word  in  use,  when  men  are  said  to  supply  the 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  239 

inner  man  by  taking  dinner,  as  if  a  man's  stomach 
were  the  inner  man.  Coy  as  life  itself  is  this  great 
region.  Few  people  appear  to  have  allowed  them- 
selves to  look  into  it.  It  would  seem  like  looking 
down  a  dizzy  height  or  off  upon  a  terrific  storm. 
It  jars  the  feelings.  Men  will  speak  with  con- 
tempt about  distinct  teaching  concerning  the 
Holy  Spirit.  I  do  not  wonder  that  people  do  not 
realize  the  presence  and  personality  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Do  we  begin  to  realize  our  own  person- 
ality? O,  the  sweep  of  being,  O,  the  depths  and 
heights  of  the  soul,  even  of  a  little  child. 

To  look  through  one's  own  being  is  like  going 
off  the  hurricane-deck  of  a  steamer  on  to  the 
passenger-deck.  (Many  people  appear  to  go  no 
further  than  this.  What  do  they  know  about  the 
vessel?)  To  look  through  one's  own  being  is  to 
go  down  stairs  into  the  saloon,  then  go  down 
another  stairway  to  the  hold,  and  go  on  down 
until  you  come  to  the  keelson.  Then  traverse 
the  vessel  from  stem  to  stern,  and  when  you  have 
completed  your  examination  looking  over  the 
many  appliances  and  the  general  outfit  of  it,  with 
surprise  you  will  say,  '  'Why,  this  is  a  floating  city. " 
Little  wonder  that  Paul,  speaking  of  the  love  of 
God,  is  made  by  both  the  authorized  and  the  re- 
vised versions  to  say,  "  It  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts."  We  are  not  conscious  of  a  fraction  of 
the  meaning  of  our  own  existence  as  spiritual 


240  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN- LIFE 

beings.     We  hold  that  we  are  spirits  in  our  com- 
monest methods  of  expression,  calling  hands  and 
feet  and  mind  and  feelings  ours,  not  us,  but  that 
mighty  personality  which  should  alarm  us  when 
separate  from  God  becomes  to  us  but  the  merest 
generality.    The  great  concern  of  God  for  human- 
ity is   no   exaggeration.     It   is    the   concern   of 
purest  love,  but  it  is  all  lavished  upon  beings 
made    originally   a  little    lower   than    God   and 
stricken  with  disloyalty,  to  recover  us  from  which 
all  heaven  is  concerned.     The  great  inner  man  is 
the  center  of  righteous  or  unrighteous  ambitions, 
the  great  region  where  love  has  her  nest  and 
from  which  she  flies  out  in  the  mid-heavens  of 
Providence.     The  great  inner  man  is  the  region 
where  all  the  graces  may  live  and  grow,  and  it  is  a 
territory  vast,  so  vast  that  God  alone  can  over- 
take it.     And  that  man  who  is  not  a  Christian 
is  not  only  rebellious  but  he  is  utterly  foolish  to 
undertake  to  manage  himself.     He  is   too  vast. 
There  are   so  many  highways  leading   into  the 
secrets  of  his  character,  there  are  so  many  gate- 
less  highways  about  unregenerate  man,  that  he 
is  perfectly  foolish  when  he  undertakes  to  say,  I 
will  do  the  best  I  can  with  myself,  so  incompetent 
is  he  to  watch  all  these  highways. 

This  I  think  is  what  Paul  had  in  mind  when  he 
said,  < '  And  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all 
understanding  shall  guard  your  hearts  and  minds 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  341 

through  Christ  Jesus."  The  word  here  ren- 
dered "guard,"  is  the  very  same  word  which  is 
used  for  a  Roman  sentry,  and  hence  he  would 
seem  to  say,  these  highways  into  your  being  are 
very  long  and  wide  and  many,  and  over  there  by 
that  gateway  shall  stand  Peace,  and  when  Lust 
shall  come  running  in  from  the  devil's  army  to 
get  at  you.  Peace  shall  say,  "Stay,  I  am  here  ;" 
and  when  Envy  shall  come  running  in  from  the 
devil's  army  to  the  secret  of  your  being,  then  up- 
on his  reaching  the  gateway.  Peace  shall  say, 
"Stay,  lam  here,"  and  when  Doubt  and  Fear 
come  running  toward  us  to  capture  us.  Peace 
shall  stand  with  her  serene  face  and  say  "  Stay, 
lam  here,"  until  the  whole  being  is  kept  by  the 
power  of  God  through  faith  unto  a  salvation  ready 
to  be  revealed.  For  Peace  is  majestic  and  keen- 
eyed. 

This  great  inner  man  then  is  to  be  guarded  by 
Peace,  the  surroundings  are  to  be  fortifications 
that  are  quiet  and  lovely,  the  guarded  soul  is 
consequently  kept  under  the  secure  keeping  of  an 
infinite  God,  and  no  other  power  can  keep  it. 

The  inner  man  !  Do  you  not  know  how  this 
moment  you  think  you  have  the  inner  man  mas- 
tered and  you  say,  "  I  will  always  be  kind,"  and 
in  less  than  thirty  minutes  some  person  has  said 
something  to  you  which  has  caused  to  spring  up 
within  you  the  very  venomous  disposition  of   per- 


343  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

dition.  Man  might  just  as  well  undertake  to  feed 
himself  by  grasping  in  the  air  as  to  undertake  to 
guard  the  inner  man  himself.  He  can  not  do  it. 
None  but  the  Infinite  One  can  supply  our  all  but 
infinite  wants. 

Now  this  inner  man  is  Christ's  great  craft. 
He  hath  come  to  captain  it.  He  will  stay  with 
the  ship  day  and  night.  He  will  strengthen  it 
against  the  beating  waves  and  he  will  with  equal 
ease  hush  the  waves  to  rest.  Will  he  stay? 
Will  he  surely  dwell  in  our  hearts  ?  Ah,  tell  us 
this  until  we  believe  it  if  you  can.  Most  of  us 
know  something  of  what  it  means  to  have  high 
moments  of  ecstasy  and  victory.  So  true  is  this 
that  in  certain  regions  of  the  church's  thought 
to-day  there  is  an  idea  that  really  the  Christian 
life  implies  a  peripatetic  kind  of  allegiance.  We 
talk  about  a  mountain-top  experience  and  a 
valley  experience,  and  a  bright  day  and  a  dark 
day.  Very  often  I  fear  the  real  significance  of 
it  is  a  loyal  condition  and  a  disloyal  condition, 
a  true  condition  and  an  untrue  condition,  tor  un- 
less you  are  talking  merely  about  the  region  of 
your  feelings,  which  is  not  the  essential  region  of 
Christianity,  then  certainly  there  must  be  an  ini- 
quitous departure  from  God's  love  when  you  get 
into  the  valley.  Do  you  mean  that  your  charac- 
ter goes  mountain  and  then  valley,  light  place 
and  then  dark  place? 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  243 

This  is  not  a  question  of  weeping  or  laughing. 
Tears  can  be  produced  with  horseradish  and  laugh- 
ter with  a  feather.  Nothing  is  superficial  here. 
We  are  dealing  with  the  inner  man.  The  inner 
man  may  know  both  the  joy  and  the  sorrow 
of  the  Lord  just  as  the  dew-drop  reflects  the 
light  as  surely  as  the  ocean.  And  the  joy  is  in 
the  sorrow  and  the  sorrow  is  in  the  joy,  as 
the  light  is  in  the  flower  and  the  flower  is  in 
the  light.  God  has  no  contradictions  in  his 
nature.  Slay  the  self-life  and  God  brings  the 
Christ-life  and  he  brings  it  to  abide. 

How  he  punctuated  every  great  lesson  of  the 
fifteenth  of  John  with  that  word  "abide."  He 
gathered  together  illustration  and  explanation 
and  exhortation  and  piled  the  one  upon  the  other 
and  then  set  upon  the  pyramid  that  word 
' '  abide. "  He  conditioned  great  results  in  prayer 
upon  it,  so  great  that  they  astound  the  unregen- 
erate  man.  Christian  joy.  Christian  love  and 
fruit-bearing  follow  in  the  train  of  his  thought 
until  as  a  climax  he  promises  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Comforter.  But  who  of  us  has  not  had  that  cher- 
ished moment  of  high  resolution?  I  used  to 
board  with  a  lady  who  was  the  mother  of  five 
children — and  when  I  speak  of  her  I  speak  with 
bated  breath,  for  her  failures  seem  only  to 
emphasize  my  own.  She  used  to  be  very  jubi- 
lant   on    Sunday,   she    would    shout    hallelujah 


244  0C7T  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

and  she  was  a  great  church  attender,  but  before 
Monday  noon,  through  the  partition  between  the 
place  where  she  and  the  family  dwelt  and  my 
room,  I  would  fairly  seem  to  hear  her  slippers 
scold  the  floor.  She  appeared  to  have  lost  all  her 
great  grace.  She  had  religion  enough  for  a  pew, 
but  she  had  not  enough  for  a  wash-tub.  She  had 
great  enthusiasm  in  testimony-meeting,  but  it  was 
another  thing  to  have  five  of  God's  lambs  to 
be  fed.  Surely  this  is  not  all  '  <■  the  Christian 
life  "  means.  Abide,  abide.  The  world  to-day  is 
hunting  and  God  is  pleading  for  a  company  of 
Christian  people  who  can  shine,  every  day  lumin- 
ous. Said  Paul,  ' '  Among  whom  we  shine  as  lu- 
minaries in  the  world,"  and  he  had  just  said  pre- 
viously that  it  was  to  be  done  in  the  midst  of  a 
crooked  and  perverse  generation,  too.  O,  to  get 
over  this  peripatetic  kind  of  loyalty  followed  by 
disloyalty,  this  building  up  a  splendid  structure, 
and  then  standing  back  and  seeing  it  tumble,  and 
then  letting  our  tears  fall  over  the  broken  tim- 
bers, and  building  up  again, until  we  get  tired, and 
standing  back  and  seeing  it  fall  and  weeping 
over  the  splintered  timbers  again.  Surely  such 
experience  can  not  be  ' '  grounded, "  like  a  building, 
on  a  deep  foundation,  or  '« rooted,  "like  a  tree,  in 
love. 

Time  is  as  nothing  with  our  Keeper.      ' '  O,  but 
the  circumstances."     Never  forget  that  circum- 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  245 

stances  are  our  opportunities.  A  great  deal  is 
said  to-day  about  environment.  There  is  no 
doubt  about  the  value  of  a  proper  environment  if 
properly  used — it  is  better  to  live  on  the  south 
side  of  life  than  on  the  north,  but  if  you  keep  im- 
proving the  environment  and  do  not  keep  improv- 
ing the  soul,  soon  all  advantage  becomes  common 
and  the  individual  becomes  thankless  and 
dwarfed.  Place  a  selfish,  jealous  person  into  a 
mansion,  provide  servants  and  elegance  and  pay 
all  the  bills  for  him,  and  unless  he  loses  that  sel- 
fishness he  will  soon  become  accustomed  to  the 
comforts  and  blister  your  very  feelings  with  in- 
gratitude. A  violin  which  will  not  sound  well  in 
a  log  cabin  will  not  sound  well  in  a  mansion. 
Plant  a  thorn  tree  in  a  valley  and  it  is  a  thorn. 
Plant  it  on  the  hillside  and  it  is  still  a  thorn.  In 
sandy  soil,  thorn;  in  clay  soil,  thorn;  in  winter, 
thorn;  in  summer,  thorn.  The  environment  will 
not  change  it.  All  over  this  world  you  may  find 
people  quarreling  with  their  occupations.  The 
hatter,  the  barber,  the  dentist,  the  tailor,  the 
shoemaker;  all  occupations  illustrating  this  old 
quarrel.  It  is  an  old  device  of  the  enemy  to  get 
us  to  quarrel  with  circumstances  rather  than 
resolutely  set  our  wills  by  faith  in  Christ  to  have 
the  self-life  slain  and  the  Christ-life  imparted. 
Are  you  poor  ?  You  can  have  Christ  abide  in 
you.     Others  have,   and    the    promise  is  yours. 


246  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Are  you  frail  and  do  you  live  in  a  defective  body? 
You  may  have  Christ  abiding;  others  have,  and 
the  promise  is  to  you.  Are  you  strong  and  fore- 
handed with  circumstances?  You  may  prove 
how  you  do  in  the  secret  of  his  searching  draw  all 
your  good  and  all  your  triumph  not  from  self  but 
from  Christ.  He  would  abide.  Does  some  one 
say,  ' '  I  have  tried  this  often.  Vows  have  been 
made  in  tears  and  my  deepest  motives  appear  to 
have  favored  this  very  life  of  the  abiding  pres- 
ence of  Christ,  but  I  have  not  succeeded.  Such 
a  life  appears  beyond  my  reach  and  rather  for 
angels  than  for  men." 

A  lady  whose  life  had  been  very  ordinary  in- 
deed, when  compared  with  the  richer  privileges 
in  Christ,  received  through  the  Holy  Spirit's  light- 
ing up  the  things  of  Grod  to  her,  such  a  realiza- 
tion of  Christ  that  her  face  was  beautifully  lit  up, 
her  voice  was  soft  and  her  very  attitude  superior. 
She  began  at  once  to  say,  ' '  I  must  go  right  home 
and  tell  my  children  of  the  beauty  of  Jesus.  The 
beauty  of  Jesus.  I  never  saw  Jesus  like  this  be- 
fore." Then  quick  as  a  flash  she  began  to  utter 
these  words  half  sorrowfully,  "Can  I  keep  it;  can 
Ilkeep  it." 

Now,  here  the  gift  of  power  finds  its  place.  "We 
are  to  be  strengthened  with  power  that  Christ 
may  dwell.  That  life,  that  Christ-life,  forgiving 
enemies,  delighting  to  serve;  sacrificial  and  free 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  247 

from  pride,  jealousy,  lust,  malice  and  anger  is 
itself  charged  with  too  much  force  for  us  to  main- 
tain it  in  constancy.  Conscious  of  this,  and 
either  forgetting  or  not  having  known  about  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  multitudes  have  be- 
come discouraged  and  have  sought  to  content 
themselves  with  what  they  call  the  spirit  of  mod- 
eration and  balance. 

It  will  do  us  good  to  look  squarely  at  the 
weakness  of  our  nature,  since  sin  has  so  af- 
fected us.  In  the  Old  Testament  we  repeatedly 
hear  about  God  being  our  strength,  but  in 
the  New  Testament,  where  the  fuller  unfolding 
of  God's  nature  appears  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  this 
strength  or  power  is  brought  out  into  prominence 
and  we  are  bidden  to  receive  it.  We  are  like 
clay  pails  taken  fresh  from  the  potter's  wheel. 
It  is  frail,  moist  clay,  scarcely  capable  of  holding 
its  own  weight  up  into  the  form  which  the  potter 
has  wrought.  Now  let  us  try  to  fill  it  with  wa- 
ter. But  a  few  spoonfuls  have  been  poured  into 
it  until  the  pail  begins  to  run  over  the  floor  in 
a  muddy  stream.  Let  us  take  another  and  see  if 
we  may  fill  it  with  money.  We  have  not 
placed  more  than  a  handful  into  it  until  it  is 
breaking  down  and  the  money  is  falling  out.  It 
can  not  hold  the  contents.  Its  fibre  is  not  strong 
enough.  Now  let  us  take  still  another  clay  pail 
fresh  from   the  potter's   wheel  and  place  it  in  a 


248  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

furnace  and  turn  on  the  hot  fire  until  it  becomes 
hard.  It  is  ready.  Take  it  and  set  it  on  the  table 
and  fill  it  now  to  the  brim  with  pieces  of  money ;  it 
will  hold  every  one  of  them.  Fill  it  with  diamonds, 
it  will  hold  every  one  of  them.  Fill  it  with  water, 
it  will  hold  all  the  water  we  can  put  into  it.  So  with 
the  inner  man.  If  the  walls  of  the  inner  man  are 
not  strong  enough  they  will  not  hold  the  Christ- 
life.  There  is  a  little  of  the  old  man,  a  little  of 
the  malign,  a  little  of  the  jealous,  of  the  vain,  of 
the  self -life,  and  the  walls  break  down.  But  let 
Grod's  Holy  Spirit  of  power  come  and  enter  into 
the  fibre  of  the  inner  man,  let  the  walls  be 
strengthened  with  the  silent  strength  of  God's 
love  until  we  are  toned  up  with  divine  vigor — 
then  let  the  Christ-life  come  in  and  we  can  hold 
it.  The  love  of  God  shall  abide  in  our  hearts,  the 
peace  of  God  shall  abide  within  us,  the  joy  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  our  strength,  and  the  hope  of  God 
shall  be  our  badge  of  honor  and  triumph,  and 
God  in  all  things  shall  be  glorified ;  we  shall  be  in 
deed  and  in  truth  partakers  of  the  divine  nature, 
strengthened  with  might,  strengthened  with  his 
spirit  in  the  inner  man. 

A  very  expressive  phrase  has  become  quite  com- 
mon, especially  at  camp  meetings  and  holiness 
meetings.  It  is  indeed  a  great  phrase.  Men  have 
contended  sharply  about  it,  and  thirsty  souls  have 
trembled  when  it  has  been  uttered.    This  is  it, 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  249 

"  Receiving  the  power."  What  I  have  just  illus- 
trated by  the  clay  pail  being  empowered  to  hold 
its  contents,  I  believe  to  be  the  true  meaning  of 
this  great  phrase,   "  Receiving  the  power." 

I  would  not  feel  called  upon  to  utter  criticisms 
against  displays  of  religious  influence  in  people's 
bodies,  when  men  have  been  known  to  swoon, 
when  others  have  leaped  to  their  feet  with  shouts 
of  great  joy,  and  others  with  shining  faces  have 
just  leaned  back  and  whispered  their  praise  to  the 
bounteous  giver.  Some  of  these  scenes  have  been 
beautiful  beyond  description,  and  their  holy  influ- 
ence has  lingered  tenaciously  for  many  days,  espe- 
cially perhaps  such  of  them  as  have  marked  the 
death-hour  of  some  of  the  most  triumphant.  We 
would  not,  we  dare  not,  criticise  or  speak  care- 
lessly in  the  presence  of  such  scenes. 

But  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  seems  rather 
a  girding  than  a  collapse.  What  immediate  re- 
sults to  the  physical  frame  may  follow  this  largest, 
fullest,  richest,  manifestation  of  God's  self  to 
man  we  can  not  assert.  A  man  whose  eye  has 
been  fixed  upon  self,  if  not  lustfully  yet  longingly 
for  twenty  years  and  who  now,  suddenly  gets 
that  eye  Jilled  with  the  vision  of  the  pure,  gentle, 
benevolent  Spirit  may  easily  find  himself  incapa- 
ble of  longer  sitting  erect.  His  body  prone  on 
the  earth  may  declare  how  the  gaze  dazzled  and 
overpowered  him  for  the  time  being.     Or  one 


250  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

whose  voice  has  been  mute  for  a  score  of  years, 
when  the  goodness  of  God  appeals  to  his  sense  of 
gratitude,  being  suddenly  ravished  with  the  vast- 
ness  of  that  goodness  to  him  and  others  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  lighting  up  the  display — surely  we 
can  conceive  how  such  a  one  might  be  heard  to 
shout  aloud  his  hallelujahs.  And  we  can  more 
than  conceive  how  these  things  might  occur,  for 
some  of  my  readers  bear  in  their  memories  the 
very  sweets  accompanying  such  experiences.  But 
notwithstanding  this,  that  phase  of  physical  in- 
fluence upon  some  temperaments  or  during  some 
occasions  is  not  what  is  meant  essentially  by  re- 
ceiving the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Its  essen- 
tial, distinctive  meaning  is  rather  in  contrast 
with  these  things. 

1.  Jesus  returned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit 
into  G-alilee  and  thence  to  Nazareth,  where  he 
clearly  announces  his  programme.  ' '  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent 
me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliver- 
ance to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to 
the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised ; 
to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 
(Luke  iv:  18,  19  ) 

The  power  of  the  Spirit  appears  to  have  speed- 
ily brought  forth  a  calm,  vast,  thoughtful  an- 
nouncement from  prophecy. 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  251 

2.  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you  and  ye  shall  be  wit- 
nesses unto  me."  That  power  would  then  gird  a 
man  to  be  a  clear,  distinct,  truthful  witness. 

3.  Jesus  surely  taught  this  truth  when  he  told 
his  people  not  to  be  anxious  when  arrested  and 
on  trial  what  they  should  answer,  nor  to  try  to 
plan  it,  for  the  Holy  Spirit  would  teach  them. 

4.  And  in  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  Holy 
Spirit's  coming  seems  to  have  opened  as  a  special 
sign  the  intelligence  of  the  receivers  of  the  power, 
so  that  they  understood  foreign  languages,  thus 
in  a  trice  accomplishing  what  would  otherwise 
require  long  seasons  of  study. 

The  power  is  not  of  the  thunder-bolt  class. 
That  would  destroy  rather  than  gird  us.  It  is 
his  light  we  need.  Let  us  have  the  light  whether 
the  match  cracks  and  snaps  or  is  more  quiet. 
Let  us  not  forget  that  to  turn  our  attention  upon 
our  own  rapture  may  be  but  to  tempt  th^  return- 
ing of  the  old  enemy,  the  self -life.  Christ  is 
more  to  us  than  our  rapture,  and  the  strength, 
the  power,  is  more  than  our  ecstasy.  And  let  us 
remember  that  as  the  fire  silently  found  its 
way  into  the  clay  pail,  the  fire  of  God  might 
silently  find  its  way  into  the  __walls  of  our  inner 
beings  while  Christ  was  preparing  the  furniture, 
in  order  that  he  might  dwell  there  forever  and 
forever.     It  might  come  like  the  frost  stealing 


352  OUT,  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

into  the  stones,  unheard  and  with  noiseless  foot- 
steps, while  the  soul  is  sweetly,  silently  con- 
scious, ' '  God  is  strengthening  me,  I  shall  over- 
come now;  I  feel  within  me  the  power  of  victory; 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  making  the  walls  of  my  inner 
man  capable  of  resisting  the  attacks  of  the  ene- 
my." Many  people  would  feel  like  hastening 
away  to  some  silent  room  all  alone  to  talk  it 
over  with  the  Father,  saying  calmly,  ' '  Oh,  the 
strength  of  G-od!  The  might  of  God!"  coming  out 
again  to  witness  by  word  and  life  to  the  precious 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  inner  man — the 
power  of  God. 

Have  you  received  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit? 
Can  you  go  out  of  the  most  enthusiastic  meeting 
without  shuddering  to  think,  '  'when  I  get  home 
it  will  be  so  still,  and  that  same  spirit  that  har- 
monizes with  me  will  tantalize  me?  "  Can  you 
go  home  and  say,  ' '  He  is  here,  that  Divine  Person 
with  whom  I  harmonize  is  here  ?"  Full  as- 
surance of  faith,  full  assurance  of  hope,  full 
assurance  of  understanding — three  terms  which 
belong  to  the  Epistles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, are  they  your  very  own  ?  Oh,  that  he 
might  so  come  and  strengthen  us  anew  in  the 
inner  man,  that  constant  as  our  breathing  when 
we  are  awake  and  in  toil,  or  when  we  are  asleep 
and  unconscious,  Christ  may  dwell  in  us.  And 
when  we  get  out  with  the  problems  that  are  com- 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  253 

ing  upon  us  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  we  shall 
not  say,  ' '  I  was  so  happy  in  that  meeting,  but  I 
am  afraid  if  they  come  down  with  a  cold  problem 
and  ask  me  to  grapple  with  it  I  will  get  tired  and 
discouraged,  but  I  will  go  to  meeting  and  get 
happy  again. "  You  can  not  live  this  way.  You  take 
the  level  of  the  sea  from  the  level,  not  from  the 
crest  of  the  wave.  Now,  if  the  power  of  God  is 
in  the  inner  man,  you  will  say,  ' '  Let  that  problem 
come.  Christ  ^s  here  and  he  knows  how  to  grapple 
with  it,  and  he  icill  grapple  with  it,  and  his 
strength  in  the  Holy  Spirit  is  enough  to  keep 
me.  If  my  strength  fails,  if  the  body  die,  then  I 
will  only  have  my  headquarters  of  operation 
higher  up ;  and  if  he  wants  my  body  to  stand  the 
strain  of  the  problem  for  fifty  or  sixty  years  with 
sweat  and  toil  and  patient  sacrifice,  then  he  will 
stay  right  here  and  see  me  through,  touching  me 
now  and  again  with  the  blessed  inspiration  of  the 
vigor  that  is  out  of  his  great  fund  of  strength." 
What  have  I  to  fear  or  choose  since  Christ  is  all 
the  world  to  me,  and  all  my  heart  is  love  ?  Oh, 
for  the  power,  the  strong,  steady,  divine 
might.  Oh,  for  merchants  to  stand  behind  their 
counters  conscious  of  the  indwelling  Jesus,  and 
not  afraid  of  the  customer  who  may  come  and 
try  to  induce  them  to  deceive.  Oh,  for  people 
who  have  no  disposition  to  tempt  the  devil,  but 
let  him  come  every  step  before  they  hear  him, 


254  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

conscious  that  Christ  will  master  him.  Oh,  for 
those  who  sit  beside  the  couches  of  the  sick,  with 
little  provision  of  victuals  in  the  pantry  and  with 
little  money  in  the  bank,  and  with  children  who 
need  protection  and  care  and  blessing,  quietly 
conscious  that  the  inner  man  is  fortified  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  of  Christ  dwelling  within,  while 
they  say,  ' '  The  hours  are  not  too  long ;  Jesus  is 
here." 

I  have  heard  congregations  sing, ' '  Thou  my  ever- 
lasting portion,  more  than  life  or  friends  to  me," 
almost  daily  for  three  years,  but  my  soul  ''has 
been  seeking  to  prove  the  language  mine  and  I 
have  proven  it.  O,  for  such  a  stability  that  a 
man  might  be  all  alone  in  Africa,  beyond  the 
reach  of  any  familiar  voice  or  hand,  while  within 
a  rod  of  where  he  stands  a  savage  might  appear 
with  a  spear  poised  directly  at  his  heart  and  a 
serpent  be  within  a  foot  of  his  heel,  yet  should  he 
consciously  say  in  the  might  of  God,  ' '  I  believe 
that  Jesus  is  with  me  all  the  time  and  I  am  more 
than  conquerer."  Such  an  one,  I  think,  would 
only  represent  what  it  is  to  be  "strengthened 
with  power." 

Another  beautiful  and  very  expressive  phrase 
has  become  current  in  our  day.  It  is  the 
"power  for  service."  Many  very  rich  things 
are  being  said  about  the  need  of  the  anoint- 
ing of  the   Holy   Spirit   for   new  undertakings, 


STRENGTHENED  WITH  POWER  255 

bringing     out    very    clearly    the     much-needed 
truth  that  the  power  in  all  victory  is  of  God  and 
not  of  us.     And  how  very  blessedly  this  power 
for  service  finds   its  natural  place   in   the  great 
plan  as  we  remember  that  Christ  is   the  indweller 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  strengthens  with  power  the 
inner  man.      Now,  Christ    and  service   are   two 
words  which  always  love   each  other's  company. 
He  gives  himself  to  us.     He  is  servant  of  all.    He 
washes  the  feet  and  seeks  the  lost  sheep.     ' '  I  am 
among  you  as  one  that  serveth."     The  problem 
of  the  salvation  of  man  came  upon  his  heart  until 
it  broke  it.     Let  this    Christ  dwell  in  a  man  and 
how  he  will    serve!      "Ye    have    the    mind   of 
Christ,"  has  been  translated,  "Ye  have  the  dis- 
position of  Christ."    "The  imitation   of  Christ" 
is  not  quite  correct  as  an    expression.     We  must 
have  the  Christ-life.     Then  we  will  serve.     The 
idea   of    being  good   and  superior   by  excluding 
the  great  needy  multitudes  about  us  is  not  the 
Christian  idea.     Holiness  is  sacrifice;  and  sacri- 
fice since  Christ  came  has  but  one  altar,  and  that 
altar  is   human  tieed.      The  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  given  to  render  it  possible  for  us  to 
show  forth  kindness  and  gentleness  and  endur- 
ance when  all  others  fail;  to  study,  to  toil,   to 
give,  to  die,  that  the  world  may  have  its  sin  loved 
out   of   it.      Thank  God,    faith  brings  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  he  becomes  the  "we  can  "  of  the  sacri- 


^56  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ficial  life.  How  evident  this  is  if  Christ  dwells 
in  the  heart  by  faith  and  the  walls  of  the  inner 
man  are  strong  enough  to  hold  him!  Won't  we 
serve  ? 

Servant  of  all,  come  and  serve  through  us. 
Our  hands  for  thee  to  use  to  dispense  to  those 
who  need.  Our  feet  for  thee  to  use  to  send  us 
on  errands  of  mercy.  Our  lips  for  thee  to  use  to 
speak  messages  for  thee.  Our  all  for  thee  to  use 
in  a  service  Calvary-like  and  victorious. 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE, 


'•All  the  other  matchless  attributes  of  Jehovah  are 
shadowed  by  the  beauty  of  his  holiness  and  love." 

Rev.  C.  M.  Cobekn,  D.D. 

"  The  love  of  Ood  Jiath  been  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts 
through  the  Holy  Ohost  which  was  given  unto  us.'' — 
Eomans  v:5.  (R.  V.) 

"My  honored  friend  and  brother:  For  once  hearken 
to  a  child  who  is  willing  to  wash  your  feet.  I  beseech 
you,  by  the  mercies  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  if 
you  would  have  my  love  confirmed  toward  you,  write  no 
more  to  me  about  the  misrepresentations  wherein  we 
differ.  Why  should  we  dispute  when  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  convincing?  Will  it  not  in  the  end  destroy 
brotherly  love,  and  insensibly  take  from  us  that  union 
and  sweetness  of  soul  which  I  pray  God  may  always 
subsist  between  us?  How  glad  would  the  enemies  of 
the  Lord  be  to  see  us  divided.  How  would  the  cause  of 
the  common  Master  every  way  suffer  by  raising  disputes 
about  particular  points  of  doctrine.  Honored  sir,  let  us 
offer  salvation  freely  to  all  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  and 
whatever  light  God  has  given  us  let  us  freely  communi- 
cate to  others."  Whitefield  to  Wesley. 

"God's  love  is  put  within  us  as  an  object  of  our 
thought,  and  as  a  power  moulding  our  emotions,  pur- 
poses, actions."  Joseph  Agak  Beet. 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE. 

\1 /hat  is  that  power  which  never  disappoints 
^  the  most  radiant  hope  of  the  sanctified — that 
power  which  God  wields  in  his  prolonged  Calvary- 
effort,  and  which  sent  forth  the  only  begotten  Son, 
the  power  of  powers  ?  It  is  Love.  And  you  and 
I  are  living  in  the  day  when,  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  love  of  God  (not  less  than  this)  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts,  and  it  is  the  availing 
motive-power  of  the  victorious  life  to  which  we 
are  all  invited. 

There  is  a  region  of  experience  where  the  com- 
mon difficulties  of  life  which  tempt  and  dis- 
courage people  do  become  the  very  instruments 
which  exalt  life  into  richer  conditions.  Here  in 
this  region  difficulties  which  otherwise  appear 
like  mountains  are  now  feeble  little  mole  hills, 
and  the  ambitions  and  competitions  that  are  so 
common  to  human  life  appear  bald  and  worthless. 
When  pride  has  lost  its  grip  upon  the  being,  and 
love,  pure  love  sways  the  ransomed  soul,  the  child- 
like spirit  sweetens  all  the  atmosphere  of  the  life, 
and  God's  care  for  us  is  seen  to  be  just  what  His 
Word  calls  it,  "  the  riches  of  grace." 


260  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Soul,  do  you  know  this  region  of  experience  ? 
Is  the  love  ^of  God  glorifying  your  life  ?  Have 
you  got  it  ?  Better  be  a  hissing  and  a  by- word 
in  the  world,  better  have  your  provision  of 
potatoes  and  salt,  better  have  your  sleeves  out  at 
the  elbows,  but  get  it,  get  it. 

If  we  were  surrounded  to-day  by  pyramids  of 
precious  stones — diamonds,  emeralds  and  sap- 
phires, we  might  say  to  them,  "Precious  stones, 
there  is  a  region  where  things  as  beautiful  as  you 
are  grow  quickly  in  the  sunlight  and  send  forth 
abundance  of  sweet  perfume,  and  they  are  placed 
upon  marriage  altars,  and  upon  the  coffins  of  the 
dead."  Then  the  precious  stones  might  say  to 
us,  "  How  can  these  things  be  ?"  And  we  might 
answer  them,  < '  Well,  precious  stones,  you  nestle 
yourselves  down  by  the  root  of  some  orange  tree 
or  magnolia  or  rose-bush  and  allow  yourselves  to 
be  taken  up  by  the  growth  of  these  trees  or 
bushes,  then  some  bright  summer  day  you  will 
live  in  the  region  of  rapid  growth  and  sweet  per- 
fume and  flowerj  but  precious  stones  you  must 
die  to  stone-hood  before  you  can  live  in  flower, 
hood.  So  I  say  to  you  to-day,  there  is  a  region 
where  God  and  the  soul  are  in  sweetest  fellow- 
ship, an  uncomplaining,  congenial,  blessed  re- 
gion of  life  free  from  vexatious  care,  from  hate, 
from  anger  and  from  slavish  fear;  that  region  is 
the  love  of  God,  but  you  must  die  to  self -hood  be- 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  261 

before  you  can  know  this  conquering  grace  or  live 
this  blessed  life. 

Upon  love  to  God  and  man  hang  all  the  law  and 
the  prophets.  ' '  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. " 
<'He  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the  law;" 
and  "God  is  love."  Ceaseless,  deathless,  holy- 
grace  come  into  our  hearts  to-day.  Holy  Spirit, 
shining  amid  our  tribulations  and  our  shame,  shed 
it  abroad,  shed  it  abroad  to-day. 

It  will  make  no  little  difference  in  our  under- 
standing of  this  subject,  as  well  as  in  the  wealth 
or  poverty  of  our  characters,  that  we  have  a  cor- 
rect knowledge  of  what  this  love  really  is. 

1.  It  is  not  a  kindlier  way.  No  mere  adding  on 
of  acts  more  gentle  or  more  genial  can  represent 
this  wonderful  grace,  nor  if  the  best  of  them  could 
be  grounded  in  a  habit  would  they  truly  represent 
what  is  here  meant,  nor  is  the  significance  like 
that  of  a  person  dwelling  in  a  house,  himself  sep- 
arate from  the  place  where  he  lives.  But  it  is  like 
the  sap  in  the  tree  or  the  tides  in  the  ocean  or  the 
light  breathing  out  its  purity  in  the  opening  and 
fragrant  flower.  Love,  love!  Have  you  got  it? 
Have  you  got  it? 

2.  It  is  not  what  we  commonly  understand  by 
natural  love,  such  as  exists  between  husband  and 
wife,  parents  and  children,  brothers  and  sisters. 
Surely  if  it  were  the  purest  type  of  this  kind  of 
love  it  would  be  well  worth   its   cost   to  have   it 


262  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

constantly  abiding  within  us»  Who  dare  but 
commend  pure,  natural  love  ?  It  has  kept  bonds 
of  kindly  interest  unbroken  for  scores  of  years  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  have  neither  seen  nor 
heard  from  each  other.  It  has  kept  the  heart  of 
the  mother  quiet  and  patient  and  cheerful  during 
the  long  hours  of  night  watching  while  all  about 
her,  except  the  sick  child,  were  quiet  in  sleep.  It 
has  bridged  the  ocean  for  lovers,  it  has  made  dis- 
tance appear  as  nothing,  it  has  made  toil  and 
endurance  as  light  as  air,  it  has  caused  the  very 
fountain  of  the  deeps  of  the  being  to  break  forth 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  regard  upon  the  death  of 
some  darling  of  the  household.  Sweet  human 
love,  thou  hast  stitched  the  family  life  together 
and  knitted  the  household  into  oneness ! 

Portions  of  this  love  are  manifest  in  the  heart 
of  the  heathen  and  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
alike.  It  burns  high  on  the  altars  of  child- 
hood devotion,  its  fires  will  live  when  old  age 
has  brought  the  pilgrim  to  second  childhood, 
and  like  the  fires  upon  the  altar  in  the  ancient 
temple,  it  never  goes  out  during  the  days  that 
intervene.  Yet  this  kind  of  love,  though  so 
great,  is  evidently  not  the  love  which  now 
concerns  us.  There  is  a  higher  love  and  there 
is  a  higher  life.  As  the  life  of  the  lily  is  higher 
than  that  of  the  stone,  the  life  of  the  kitten 
is  higher  than  that  of  the  lily,  the  life  of   the 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  263 

child  is  higher  than  that  of  the  kitten,  and  the 
life  of  God,  the  life  he  imparts  to  the  waiting 
soul,  the  ' '  Zoe "  in  the  New  Testament,  is 
higher  than  the  human  life  in  sin,  so  the  love 
of  God  is  higher  than  human  love. 

3.  It  is  the  love  of  God.  Jesus  said  to  the 
Jews,  "Ye  have  not  the  love  of  God  abiding 
in  you."  Without  doubt  these  very  men  loved 
their  wives,  and  these  very  women  loved  their 
children  and  these  sons  and  daughters  loved 
each  other;  but  not  with  this  higher  love  which 
Christ  came  to  give  us.  Again  he  said,  "If  any 
man  love  the  world  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not 
in  him,"  it  is  very  evident  that  he  meant  to  show 
that  there  is  a  love  which  is  not.like  this  other  love 
— the  love  of  the  Father.  The  love  of  the  world  is 
born  of  a  natural  life,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  born 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  new  life.  It  is  of  God's  own 
life.  It  is  the  very  same  love  that  first  con- 
ceived the  creation  of  the  power  of  human  love. 
It  is  the  very  same  love  that  originated  Calvary, 
not  like  it,  not  explaining  it,  but  the  very 
same  love.  It  is  the  taking  of  somewhat  of 
the  dynamo  of  God's  perfect  being,  and  the 
imparting  of  this  electric  blessedness  to  our  im- 
perfect beings  until  we  are  made  ' '  partakers  of 
the  divine  nature."  He  infinite,  we  finite. 
The  very  same  light  which  fills  this  room  is 
the  light  which  fills   the  air  about  us,  and  the 


264  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

little  leaf  dropping  from  the  tree  obeys  the  very- 
same  law  as  the  earth  in  its  motion,  and  the 
worlds  in  theirs.  So  the  very  same  love  which 
is  in  Grod's  heart  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  which  is  given  unto  us.  God's 
love. 

Have' you  got  it?  Have  you  got  it  ?  If  not, 
be  a  hissing  and  a  by- word  in  the  world,  eat  po- 
tatoes and  salt,  let  your  sleeves  be  out  at  the 
elbows,  but  get  it,  get  it. 

Did  you  ever  receive  a  welcome  surprise,  so 
great  and  so  welcome  that  you  sat  down  and 
thought  it  over  ?  What  joy  dwelt  within  you  as 
you  went  about  your  toils  to  find  it  flowing  in 
perfect  floods  over  the  mind  and  over  the  feelings 
until  this  one  surprise  was  under  and  over  and 
through  and  through  everything  you  did  that  day. 
This  is  the  way  the  love  of  G-od  finds  its  welcome 
to  the  thoroughly  surrendered  heart.  The 
stranger  becomes  a  friend,  the  far-off  grace  be- 
comes the  very  thrill  of  our  lives,  under,  above 
and  through  all  we  do  or  say  or  think.  Yet  we 
are  so  insensible  to  it.  Holy  Spirit,  breathe  upon 
us  until  we  awaken  and  welcome  thy  dawn  of 
blessedness  this  hour. 

We  seem  so  often  to  be  like  one  who  might 
stand  upon  the  ridge  of  the  roof  of  a  building 
and  look  it  over;  he  would  say  to  himself,  this 
building  is  so  long  and  so  wide  and  so  high.   This 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  265 

roof  is  made  of  such  and  such  material  and  is 
about  so  old.  But  let  the  man  come  down  from 
the  ridge  of  the  roof  and  enter  into  the  building, 
let  him  sit  amid  the  multitude  where  the  worship 
is  all  heart-worship,  let  him  hear  the  organ  and 
the  singers  and  the  speakers,  and  let  the  great 
power  of  salvation  enter  into  the  assembly  until 
men  are  born  again  then  and  there.  Now  the 
building  is  a  new  building,  he  is  within  it,  he 
looks  high  to  the  ceiling,  he  looks  out  through 
the  windows  to  the  light,  he  has  fellowship  with 
the  worshipers,  his  soul  has  proven  that  Christ 
was  there,  and  to  him  the  building  is  another 
place,  he  is  within  it  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
occasion  is  within  him.  Thus  we  look  upon  God's 
love.  We  are  on  the  outside  of  it  where  there 
are  no  doors  to  enter,  exalted  in  the  thought  of 
our  own  purpose  or  of  our  own  love,  but  let  us 
come  to  the  open  doors  and  enter  in  to  gather  the 
inspiration  that  there  awaits  us  until  we  do  know 
the  love  of  God.  Behold  these  windows,  how  they 
look  far  out  to  the  last  struggling  sinner  who 
piteously  lifts  a  hand  for  help.  See  the  height  of 
these  ceilings,  high  as  the  throne  of  God.  Yon- 
der they  glitter  in  the  wealth  through  the  haze 
of  our  finite  perceptions.  But  O,  feel  the  fellow- 
ship, the  breath,  the  life.  It  sweetens  our  prefer- 
ences, it  tones  our  convictions,  it  hallows  every- 
thing but  sin. 


266  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

"  For  the  love  of  God  is  broader  than  the  measure  of 
man's  mind, 

And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal  is  most  wonderfully- 
kind." 

In  the  presence  of  this  grace,  ambitions  which 
otherwise  seem  so  necessary  lose  their  signifi- 
cance and  are  replaced  by  one  ambition,  that  is, 
through  love  to  serve.  No  man  can  know  this 
blessed  sway  who  is  not  willing  to  be  poor.  Just 
as  long  as  you  can  not  say  that  you  would  rather 
be  poor  and  hungry  with  this  grace,  than  be  rich 
and  well  fed  without  it,  just  so  long  it  can  not  be 
yours.  Neither  can  any  man  prove  this  grace 
who  is  not  willing  to  be  despised,  for  it  was  this 
very  grace  which  caused  God  to  give  his  ' '  only 
begotten  Son  "  to  shame  and  slander  and  death. 
Neither  can  any  man  have  this  grace  who  is  not 
willing  to  suffer  pain.  We  can  not  say,  ' '  I  am 
strong  and  have  a  healthy  body,  therefore  I  can 
undertake  great  deeds  and  God  would  be  glad  to 
use  me,  or  I  have  money  and  am  forehanded  and 
am  acknowledged  as  great  because  of  this,  or  I 
have  winsome  ways  and  a  well  developed  social 
nature  and  I  can  win  friends  and  make  the  cause 
succeed."  Wait  a  moment.  Is  love  greater 
than  wealth?  Is  love  greater  than  physical 
strength?  Is  love  greater  than  social  power? 
There  are  thousands  of  forgotten  heathens  of  an- 
cient civilization  which  had  all  of  these  as  an  in- 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  267 

spiration,  but  the  Christian  religion  brings  us 
Christ,  and  the  love  he  brings  is  first  and  last  the 
very  atmosphere  of  a  holy  life.  Depend  upon  your 
money  and  you  may  lose  it.  Depend  upon  your 
physical  strength,  and  when  it  is  gone  where  are 
you?  Depend  upon  your  friendships  and  they 
will  betray  you,  but  be  filled  with  the  love  of 
Grod,  then  his  wealth  is  yours,  and  he  who  uses 
the  weak  things  will  cause  you  even  to  bless 
your  enemies. 

G-et  the  idea  that  this  is  God's  love.  How  it 
gets  into  your  natures  I  can  not  tell,  nor  can  we 
tell  how  life  gets  into  the  tree,  or  how  the  light 
gets  into  the  fiower,  or  how  the  fire  gets  into  the 
iron,  or  how  the  frost  gets  into  the  stone,  or  the 
attraction  into  the  magnet.  But  G-od  will  im- 
part himself  to  the  soul  which  will  give  itself  up 
exclusively  to  him. 

This  is  not  only  apparent  concerning  God's 
love;  the  peace  the  Christian  receives  is  the  peace 
of  God,  the  joy  he  receives  is  the  joy  of  the  Lord, 
and  where  Jesus  said  "Have  faith  in  God"  it 
may  well  be  translated  "  Have  you  faith  of  God." 
(Mark  xi:22.)  Of  course  they  all  become  ours 
when  we  receive  them  and  use  them.  But  the 
Father  and  the  child  are  to  share  the  same  nature ; 
born  from  above,  we  get  the  nature  which  is  from 
above.  "  Our  citizenship  is  in  heaven"  has  been 
translated  by  some  scholars,  ' '  Our  polity  begins 


SC8  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

in  the  heavens. "  Paul  says  Christ  is  the  head 
and  we  are  the  body,  and  Jesus  himself  said  that  he 
would  be  in  us  and  we  would  be  in  him  as  he  is  in 
the  Father  and  the  Father  in  him,  while  here 
again  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  Paul  says, 
< '  The  love  of  G-od  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us  " — this 
treasure  is  in  earthen  vessels. 

4.  And  while  this  love  is  God's  love  imparted 
to  our  finite  natures  its  true  expression  is  evi- 
dent in  the  service  to  our  fellow-man.  ' '  Let 
him  that  saith  he  loveth  God  love  his  brother 
also;  love  worketh  no  ill  to  a  neighbor."  The 
word  which  is  rendered  "love"  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  word  Agape,  and  it  is  the  very  same 
word  which  is  rendered  love  in  John  iii:16.  It 
means  the  love  of  intense  good  will.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  God  speaks  of  his  love  to  his 
children  the  word  used  is  Phileo,  and  it  means 
the  love  of  positive  delight.  The  love  here  re- 
ferred to  then  having  filled  our  hearts  gives  us  to 
have  the  spirit  of  intense  good-will  towards 
humanity.  It  will  be  so  in  harmony  with  the 
song  of  the  angels  and  the  advent  of  Jesus  that  it 
will  produce  the  very  opposite  of  strife  and  envy 
and  jealousy  and  malice  and  revenge,  all 
of  which  characterize  the  Cain-life.  Said  a 
little  girl  down  in  Illinois  last  Christmas  morning, 
whose  mother  had  corrected  her  in  a  firm  tone  of 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  269 

voice,    ' '  Mamma,   we  must  not  scold   to-day,  you 
know,  for  this  is  Jesus'  birthday."    The  little  child 
recognized  that  a  right  estimate  of  celebrating 
Christ's  advent  would  produce  a  loving  harmony 
in  the  family,  and  she  was  right.     The  love  of  God 
shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  will  change  the  very 
aspect  of  humanity  to  us.     When  Jesus  came  near 
to  his  crucifixion  hour  he  said  to  his  disciples,  '  'A 
new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love 
one  another  as  I  have  loved  you."     And  when  we 
remember  that  on  three  different  occasions  these 
men  had  disputed  with  each  other  who  of  them 
should  be  greatest,  we  can  plainly  see  that  the 
love  which  Jesus  had  for  them  is  altogether  su- 
perior in  type  to  that  love  which  they  had  yet 
known.     His  love  made  him  lay  down  his  life  in 
sacrifice  for  them,  but  they  never  understood  the 
deeper  meaning  of  sacrifice  until  they  received 
the  later  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  Pente- 
cost; then,  they  began  their  work  of  distributing 
goods  among  those  who  had  need  so  that  every 
man  was  supplied,  then  they  returned  counting  it 
all  joy  that  they  were  reckoned  worthy  to  suffer 
for  Christ's  sake.      It   is    the    Christly    love   we 
need.      The  Calvary-love  will  not  count  the  cost ;  it 
has  its  eye  on  the  needy  one  rather  than  upon  it- 
self or  upon  visible  results. 

Now  what  about  that  enemy  of  yours?     What 
are  you  to  do  with  him?     Does  some  one  say  ''Am 


270  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

I  to  call  wrong  right,  and  just  let  every  thing  pass 
on  as  if  all  things  were  common?"  No,  my  friend, 
you  are  not  to  call  wrong  right,  but  you  are  to  seek 
to  get  the  wrong  out  of  every  single  life  you  can  in- 
fluence in  this  wide  world,  and  you  are  to  seek 
to  get  the  right  into  every  individual's  life  you 
can  affect.  That  enemy !  His  awful  thraldom 
must  arouse  your  pity  if  you  love  him.  If  you 
love  him  you  will  pray  for  him,  you  will  study  to 
help  him,  you  will  lay  down  your  life  for  him. 
You  have  no  right  to  imprison  him  excepting  for 
the  sake  of  protecting  the  lives  of  others  and  re- 
forming his  own  nature.  He  is  ungrateful. 
But  you  are  not  serving  him,  you  are  serving 
the  Lord.  Christ  died  for  a  race  of  ingrates. 
"If  he  lay  down  his  life  for  us  we  ought  to 
lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren." 

Recently  a  church  member  called  upon  one  of  the 
leading  pastors  of  this  country.  He  came  to  con- 
sult him  about  the  advisability  of  securing  a  di- 
vorce from  his  wife.  He  began  to  tell  about  the 
sad  story  of  her  faults,  until  the  pastor  checked 
his  conversation  by  saying,  ' '  Brother,  can 
you  tell  me  one  good  thing  about  your  wife  ?  " 
The  man  replied,  "Well,  she  is  a  very  good 
cook."  "Now,"  said  the  pastor,  "can  you  tell 
me  another  good  thing  ?  Does  she  stay  at 
home?"  "Yes,  she  has  always  been  ^  very 
good   to   stay   at   home."       "Can   you   tell   me 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  271 

anything  else  good  about  your  wife  ?  "  said  the 
pastor.  '<Is  she  kind  to  her  children?" 
"Yes,  generally,"  said  the  man.  "Well,"  said 
the  pastor,  "I  think  she  has  a  good  many  re- 
deeming qualities.  Let  us  pray  together  that 
the  Lord  may  help  you  to  be  patient."  After 
prayer  they  separated.  My  friend,  the 
pastor,  sent  for  the  wife  to  come  and 
see  him.  He  told  her  he  had  heard 
about  the  difficulty  and  he  wished  to 
help  her.  The  woman  began  immediately 
to  disclose  the  faults  of  her  husband,  when 
the  pastor  pursued  the  same  plan  with  her  which 
he  had  followed  in  conversation  with  her  husband, 
and  the  first  question  was,  ' '  Can  you  tell  me  any- 
thing good  about  your  husband?  "  She  replied: 
"Well,  he  is  a  good  provider."  The  second  and 
third  questions  were  asked  and  answered  favor- 
ably, and  the  wife  was  advised  to  go  home  and 
study  patience,  after  the  pastor  had  prayed  with 
her.  Then  the  pastor  called  at  the  home  when 
the  husband  and  wife  were  both  in  and  the  chil- 
dren were  absent.  He  paved  the  way  by  telling 
the  unhappy  couple  that  he  had  heard  of  their 
trouble,  and  that  he  had  come  as  a  Christian  to 
help  them  settle  it.  "Now,"  said  he  to  tjie  hus- 
band, ' '  I  want  you  here,  in  the  presence  of  your 
wife,  to  tell  all  the  good  things  about  her  you  can 
think  of. "     He  began  to  tell,  and  with  the  pastor's 


373  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

assistance,  through  little  interjections  of  ques- 
tions, he  told  a  long  story.  "Then,"  said  the  pas- 
tor to  the  wife,  ' '  I  want  you  to  tell  all  the  good 
things  you  can  about  your  husband,"  and  the  wife 
told  an  interesting  and  long  story.  The  pastor, 
gifted  with  no  little  grace  and  wisdom,  said: 
' '  Now,  it  appears  to  me  that  there  are  many  peo- 
ple in  this  world  who  live  together  in  compara- 
tive peace,  who  can  not  say  so  many  good  things 
about  each  other  as  you  can,  and  I  want  you  to 
promise  me  that  for  at  least  one  year,  no  matter 
what  circumstances  occur  in  your  home,  you  will 
not  speak  of  any  of  the  bad  things  in  each  other's 
characters,  and  you  will  try  not  to  think  of  them. " 
The  pastor  told  me  that  some  months  had  elapsed 
and  that  he  had  asked  the  couple  for  positive 
reports,  to  find  that  they  were  living  very  agree- 
ably, and  he  said  their  faces  showed  that  it  was 
so.  But  we  saw  that  very  woman  convicted  of 
the  need  of  divine  love  in  her  heart.  We  saw 
her  weep  and  pray  and  plead,  and  we  saw  her 
profess  to  receive  it.  Who  of  us  does  not  know 
that  if  that  woman  had  the  love  of  Christ  in  her 
heart,  and  that  man  had  the  love  of  Christ  in  his 
heart,  they  would  live  in  harmony  and  blessed- 
ness, and  if  either  of  them  only  had  the  love  of 
Christ  in  the  heart,  that  one  would  be  gentle 
and  forgiving  with  the  other,  and  quite  probably, 
too,  win  the  other  from  self  unto  Christ,  through 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  273 

the  shining  of  that  same  love.  Paul  says,  in  his 
great  chapter  to  the  Corinthians,  that  this  love 
never  faileth. 

This  love  is  heroic.  Perhaps  we  may  as 
well  admit  that  as  a  distinct  characteristic 
the  spirit  of  valor  does  not  exist  in  our  day. 
Burke's  lamentation,  ' '  The  day  of  chivalry  has 
gone,"  would  fit  us  to-day.  We  are  a  race  of 
cowards.  We  are  asking  ' '  Will  it  pay,  and 
is  it  an  easy  way?  "  And  we  always  will  be  a 
race  of  cowards  until  we  receive  a  fullness  of  God's 
love.  Likely  one  reason  for  this  condition  of 
affairs  is  in  the  fact  that  man  has  invented  so  many 
machines  for  defense  and  they  are  so  well  adapted 
to  their  intended  work  that  we  have  come  to  hide 
behind  the  machine  instead  of  trusting  in  God. 
Idolatry  does  not  really  need  an  idol  made  into 
peculiar  figures.  But  we  are  told  the  fathers 
were  stronger  physically  than  we  are,  and  we 
have  not  the  power  of  endurance  to  venture 
far  in  the  conflict.  There  we  are  again  call- 
ing in  our  defense  a  human  body.  Scores  of 
suffering  bed-ridden  invalids,  who  have  not 
walked  a  yard  for  twenty  years  and  who  suf- 
fer indescribable  pain,  shame  any  such  suggestion 
away  from  us.  No,  we  need  the  love  of  God  in 
our  hearts.  We  must  have  a  baptism  of  divine 
love.  Not  a  thing,  not  a  single  thing,  must  inter- 
vene between  us  and  the  Holy  One,  not  a  mo- 


274  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

merit's  nursing  must  be  given  to  our  cowardice 
and  idolatry.  Love  is  the  very  opposite  of  idol- 
atry, for  God  is  love.  Men  can  be  loved  into  hero- 
ism. The  principle  is  strong  enough  and  the  sup- 
ply is  large  enough.  Prices  must  not  be  reckoned 
here.  Let  us  have  it,  let  us  have  it.  Fresh  from 
his  own  heart!  Then  men's  hearts  shall  be  girded 
in  the  storm,  and  the  witness,  the  very  miracle 
of  the  Divine,  shall  appear  to  infidel  and  heathen 
alike,  for  be  sure  that  by  this  shall  all  men  know 
that  we  are  Christ's  disciples  when  we  have  love 
one  to  another. 

Infidels  who  can  endure  eloquence  and  organi- 
zation, singing  and  praying,  philosophy  and  zeal, 
exhortation,  argument  and  tears  will  be  won  by 
this  power  of  powers,  the  love  of  God. 

Indians  in  their  sun  dances  will  lacerate  their 
bodies  until  pools  of  their  blood  soak  iato  the 
earth  around  them.  They  will  dance  almost  in- 
cessantly from  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  ten 
at  night  for  four  days  or  more  in  some  of  their 
religious  observances,   like  the  medicine  dance. 

Look  at  the  Mahometan  pilgrimages.  What 
weariness,  filth  and  death  mark  their  journey. 

See  the  people  of  Siam.  They  in  former  days 
burned  the  bodies  of  their  dead  and  mixing  them 
with  lime  used  them  as  plaster  for  their  temples. 

The  maidens  of  Carthage  gave  their  hair  that 
it  might  be  braided  into  bow-strings  for  Hannibals 


THE  UNFAILING  GRACE  275 

archers,  and  the  maidens  of  Tyre  gave  theirs  for 
cordage  in  the  navy  of  Tyre. 

Now,  get  that  faculty  thoroughly  imbued  with 
love,  let  the  divine  nature  fill  the  soul  with  the 
greatest  motive  power  known  in  the  universe ,  and 
who  can  dream  what  buoyancy  shall  appear  in  the 
life  consigned  to  service  as  a  fish  is  to  the  water 
in  which  it  lives.  Then  nothing  will  be  so  de- 
licious to  the  soul  as  the  privilege  of  service. 
You  might  as  well  think  of  the  sun  running  a 
million  miles  out  of  its  sphere  to  gather  up  light 
enough  with  which  to  shine  as  to  think  of  such  a 
life  separated  from  a  conscious  delight  in  blessing 
all  other  lives  about  it.  Do  you  realize  that  it  has 
never  changed  through  all  the  centuries  ?  It  is 
the  same  love  and  just  as  great  as  in  the  hour  when 
Christ  was  slain.  Like  the  little  wheat  seed  which 
thousands  of  years  ago  received  its  treasure  into 
itself  at  the  hands  of  God.  That  seed  has  folded 
that  treasure  close  in  its  embrace  all  down  the 
years,  in  heat  or  cold,  in  storm  or  calm,  by  day 
or  by  night;  it  is  to-day  after  successive  har- 
vests, not  barley  or  oats,  but  wheat.  With  like 
fidelity  through  all  the  ages  has  been,  and  will 
be,  this  love  of  God  always  the  same,  but  repro- 
ducing itself  in  successive  harvests  where  human 
hearts  receive  it.  Love  never  faileth.  When 
malice  and  jealousy,  pride  and  lust  have  burnt 
out  their  rapidly  wasting  stock  of  fuel,  then  love, 


276  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

fair  as  a  morning  without  clouds  and  strong  as  the 
heart  of  the  Lord,  our  G-od,  shall  stand  forth 
chanting  triumphantly  the  victory  of  the  saved; 
never  to  weary  or  want  or  die,  for  God  is  love. 
And  that  this  grace  should  be  given  to  flood  your 
nature  and  mine!  Dear  reader,  tell  me,  is  not 
this  life?  And  is  not  all  the  other  common  strug- 
gle death? 

The  trees  of  life  grow  in  that  thirteenth  chap- 
ter of  First  Corinthians.  Let  us  move  into  that 
orchard  to-day.  A  perfect  abundance  of  ripe  fruit 
hangs  invitingly  from  the  low-bending  branches 
here. 

Like  the  fish  to  the  ocean,  like  the  lamb  to  the 
meadow,  or  like  the  babe  to  its  mother's  arms, 
let  us  give  ourselves  to  His  love,  who  first  loved 
us. 


SOME  SCRIPTURE  SYM- 
BOLS OF  THE  HOLY 
SPIRIT. 


"The  eye  is  quicker  than  the  ear.  And  there  is 
therefore  a  language  of  symbols.  The  multitude  will 
better  catch  your  meaning  by  one  apt  symbol  than  by  a 
thousand  words.  The  mind  shrinks  from  the  intellect- 
ual effort  of  grappling  with  the  subtle  essence  of  things, 
and  loves  to  have  truth  wrapped  up  in  a  form  which  can 
easily  be  taken  in  by  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  sense  of 
touch."  F.  B.  Meyer. 

"  And  there  appeared  unto  them  cloven  tongues,  parting 
asunder  like  as  of  fire."" — Acts  ii:3. 

*'  The  church  of  God  is  to-day  courting  the  world.  Its 
members  are  bringing  it  down  to  the  level  of  the  un- 
godly. The  ball,  the  theater,  nude  and  lewd  arts,  social 
luxuries,  with  all  their  loose  moralities,  are  making 
inroads  into  the  sacred  enclosure  of  the  church.  As  a 
satisfaction  for  all  this  worldliness,  Christians  are  mak- 
ing a  great  deal  of  Lent  and  Easter  and  Good  Friday 
and  church  ornamentations.  It  is  the  old  trick  of  Satan. 
The  Jewish  church  struck  on  that  rock,  the  Roman 
church  was  wrecked  on  it,  and  the  Protestant  church  is 
fast  reaching  the  same  doom.  Our  great  dangers,  as 
we  see  them,  are  assimilation  to  the  world,  neglect  to 
the  poor,  substitution  of  the  form  for  the  fact  of  godli- 
ness, abandonment  of  discipline,  a  hireling  ministry,  an 
impure  Gospel,  which,  summed  up,  is  a  fashionable 
church."  Bishop  R.  S.  Foster. 

'*  There  are  orders  that  go  straight  to  the  hearts  of 
men  unheard  by  mortal  ears.  Some  day,  under  divine 
orders,  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  will  move  out  to  take 
the  world.     Get  ready  for  it."    Bishop  C.  C.  McCabe. 


SOME  SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  OF  THE 
HOLY  SPIRIT. 

PiTHER  because  our  moral  needs  are  so  great 
■■— '  or  because  language  is  so  incompetent,  or 
perhaps  on  account  of  both  of  these,  God  has 
chosen  to  use  many  symbols  with  which  to  illus- 
trate and  send  home  the  truths  we  need  to  know 
and  cherish.  A  large  share  of  the  differences 
which  exist  between  people  in  their  beliefs  is  due 
to  the  narrowness  of  language.  The  truth  may 
be  in  your  mind  and  in  your  heart,  but  when  you 
come  to  tell  the  hidden  worth  which  is  in  it,  what 
a  poor,  lame  instrument  is  language.  If  we  would 
consider  this  duly,  it  would  help  save  such  a 
tremendous  amount  of  religious  discussion,  and  it 
would  help  produce  such  a  great  aggregation  of 
true  harmony  among  Christian  people,  that  the 
world  would  much  sooner  get  a  deep  conviction 
of  a  divinity  of  the  Christian  religion.  Little 
differences  of  doctrinal  expression,  which  have  no 
particular  significance  as  to  our  life  and  as  to  our 
estimate  of  Jesus,  ought  at  least  to  be  placed  in 
abeyance,  in  the  presence  of  the  awful  needs  of 
humanity  about  us  and  the  eagerness  of  God's 
heart  to  reach  a  lost  world. 


280  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

In  recent  years  the  public  schools  have  been 
adopting  what  is  called  teaching  by  objects. 
Children  are  taught  to  count  with  the  use  of  balls 
and  sticks  and  apples;  or  the  picture  of  a  horse 
is  drawn  and  the  word  horse  written  under  it; 
then  the  child's  attention  is  called  to  the  picture 
and  to  the  word,  so  as  to  associate  the  word  with 
the  object  in  his  mind.  But  this  has  long  been 
heaven's  method  of  teaching  us,  another  proof  of 
the  modernness  of  Biblical  methods,  for  the  first 
Great  Teacher  has  always  led  the  way.  The  gen- 
erations are  in  the  distance  behind  him.  Let  us 
hasten  into  his  school. 

A  symbol  is  to  a  truth  what  the  wings  are  to 
the  bird.  Under  proper  conditions  it  carries  the 
truth  right  forth  on  its  journey  to  the  soul.  May 
we  see  more  than  we  put  into  words  as  we  study 
a  few  of  these  symbols  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

1.  Se  is  revealed  in  the  symbol  of  fire.  This 
strange,  weird  element,  so  dangerous  as  an 
enemy  and  so  necessary  as  a  friend,  has  been  very 
widely  employed  by  the  Lord  as  a  method  of 
getting  the  truth  through  our  dullness  into  our 
souls.  He  fixed  it  in  flaming  words  at  the  gate 
of  Eden,  he  kindled  it  in  the  temple,  he  caused  it 
to  glow  on  Sinai,  he  raised  it  aloft  as  heaven's 
finger-board  for  Israel,  and  he  made  it  the  symbol 
of  the  baptism  of  a  Christian.     Fire.     Fire. 

What   a  separator  !     The  iron  and  the  silver 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  281 

and  the  gold  are  liberated  from  the  dross  when 
the  flames  of  fire  come  to  emancipate.  With  a 
blast  of  fire,  five  times  as  forceful  as  the  most 
violent  of  hurricanes,  the  pig-iron  is  liberated 
from  the  ore;  and  the  silver  is  poured  out  and 
the  gold  refined  by  the  same  mighty  agent.  So 
here  the  agent  employed  for  the  separating  of  the 
soul  from  sin  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  fire  of  God.  The 
deep  disease  of  iniquity  is  so  fastened  into  our 
beings  that  it  will  not  be  taken  out  except  it  be 
burnt  out.  The  great  problem  of  our  lives  is  in- 
volved in  our  willingness  or  unwillingness  to 
part  with  our  sins  without  any  compromise;  to 
pass  over  into  the  life  hidden  with  Christ  in  God 
and  let  his  fire  burn  the  bridges,  so  that  retreat 
will  find  no  place  in  all  the  programme.  We  are 
bidden  to  leave  the  whole  old  life  behind  us  and 
to  take  the  whole  new  life  for  our  own.  Forsake 
sin.  As  William  Gurnall  said  when  the  gloom  of 
the  seventeenth  century  yet  hung  over  the  peo- 
ple, ' '  To  forsake  sin  is  to  leave  it  without  any 
thought  reserved  of  returning  to  it  again.  Every 
time  a  man  takes  a  journey  from  home  about 
business  we  do  not  say  he  hath  forsaken  his 
house,  because  he  meant  when  he  went  out  to 
come  to  it  again.  No,  but  when  we  see  a  man 
leave  his  house,  carry  all  his  stuff  away  with  him, 
lock  up  his  doors  and  take  up  his  abode  in  an- 
other, never  to  dwell  there  more,  here  is  a  man 


282  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN- LIFE 

who  hath  indeed  forsaken  his  house."  It  ''were 
strange  to  find  a  drunkard  so  constant  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  that  sin,  but  sometime  you  may  find  him 
sober,  and  yet  a  drunkard  he  is,  as  well  as  if  he 
was  then  drunk.  Every  one  hath  not  forsaken 
his  trade  that  we  see  now  and  then  in  his  holiday 
suits.  Then  the  man  forsakes  his  sin  when  he 
throws  it  from  him,  and  bolts  the  door  upon  it 
with  a  purpose  never  to  open  more  to  it." 

"  Out  of  the  world,"  said  Jesus.  Those  words 
of  his  seem  to  be  charged  with  electric  force, 
when  you  sever  them  from  all  others.  What  a 
title  for  a  book  they  make.  How  they  catch  the 
attention,  "Out  of  the  world."  Those  whom 
thou  hast  given  me  ^^out  of  the  world,''  ''I  have 
chosen  them  out  of  the  world."  The  drift  of 
affairs  in  the  world  of  that  day  was  all  wrong, 
because,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  of  the  self-idea, 
and  how  sadly,  how  hellishly,  this  same  drift  moves 
on  to-day.  That  it  moves  on  is  not  so  deplorable 
as  that  it  is  believed  by  so  many  to  be  the  only  pos- 
sible way  of  living.  That  belief  is  so  deep  in  the 
convictions  of  the  people  that  the  practice  of  it 
is  a  natural  result,  and  the  little  children  are 
taught  it  in  the  schools,  in  the  homes,  and,  too, 
betimes  at  least,  in  some  of  the  churches.  Now 
we  know  that  the  Christian  life  is  another  kind 
of  programme,  operating  under  another  kind  of 
rules,  seeking  another  class  of  results,  and  inspired 


SCRIPTZTRE  SYMBOLS  283 

by  another  Spirit.  We  are  sent  into  the  world 
even  as  Christ  was.  When  Darius  fled  before 
Alexander,  he  threw  his  massive  crown  from  his 
head  that  he  might  run  the  faster,  and  in  this 
conflict  of  light  with  darkness,  we,  who  do  believe 
in  Grod,  must  throw  aside  all  our  own  ambitions 
and  plans ;  for  it  will  take  an  untrammeled  soul 
for  this  task. 

We  have  seen  attempts  to  enforce  this  idea  of 
separation  from  the  world  by  the  use  of  peculiar 
forms  of  dress.  It  may  be  better  to  give  us  this 
plan  than  none,  but  we  must  know  that  there 
ought  to  be  something  in  the  Christian  heart, 
something  in  the  life,  which  will  appear  as  a  con- 
trast, that  sinners  may  see  the  difference  between 
the  clay  in  the  pit  and  the  rock  where  the  deliv- 
ered one  stands.  Let  not  the  fear  of  man  ensnare 
you.  The  stamp  of  genuineness  is  involved  here. 
If  shams  are  to  be  plentiful  as  weeds,  let  us  give 
this  Christian  religion  the  stamp  of  genuineness, 
in  the  presence  of  the  perverse.  Separate. 
Separated  by  fire,  So  often  we  speak  of  young 
Isaiah  having  his  lips  touched  with  a  live  coal 
from  off  the  altar.  Do  you  not  suppose  those  lips 
of  his  were  blistered  after  the  live  coal  touched 
them?  Yes,  this  fire  burns.  It  will  blister,  but 
heaven's  blisters  are  preferable  to  the  world's 
freezing.     The  church  must  be  separate  from  the 


284  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

world.     And  it  will  be  so  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
duly  honored. 

She  can  not  lay  her  great  undertakings  tribute 
to  all  kinds  of  questionable  methods  of  financing, 
and  to  the  business  shrewdness  of  sinful  men  who 
possess  gold,  without  violating  her  virtue  and 
wrecking  her  prospects. 

She  can  not  undertake  to  indorse  the  amuse- 
ment-loving self-life  of  the  people  about  her, 
going  into  the  same  methods  of  killing  time  and 
currying  self-conceit  which  the  world  loves,  with- 
out grieving  the  Holy  Spirit. 

She  can  not  choose  the  glitter  and  lose  the 
worth,  she  can  not,  either  for  money  with  which 
to  perpetuate  her  great  undertakings,  or  with 
friendships  with  which  to  console  her  vanity,  plead 
that  society  demands  her  compromise,  without 
losing  her  power  and  grieving  her  God. 

She  can  not,  through  her  amusements,  fund  the 
treasury  for  God's  poor  and  attempt  through  her 
pleasures  to  provide  the  social  stimulus  which 
the  sinner,  amid  ten  thousand  temptations,  needs, 
without  betraying  the  wisdom  of  her  Leader  and 
slandering  the  Calvary  of  her  Redeemer.  Whose 
heart  has  not  been  made  sick  in  these  latter  days 
with  the  terrible  travesty  of  a  mixed  intoxication 
of  amusement  and  so-called  charity  and  of  a 
promiscuous  jumble  of  worldliness  and  religion? 
I  saw  not  long  ago  a  church  arranged  for  a  church- 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  285 

supper  with  a  fee,  where  the  words  of  the  wicked 
rich  maji  were  framed  and  hung  up  near  one  of 
the  tables,  "  Eat, drink  and  be  merry."  And  this 
in  Christ's  church  ! 

Nor  may  she  withdraw  from  the  world.  The 
iron  worker  will  thrust  his  hand  into  the  water 
and  then  into  the  molten  iron  for  an  instant, 
without  receiving  injury.  The  water  has  made  a 
case  of  vapor  about  the  hand  for  its  protection, 
and  the  Lord  makes  a  wall  of  fire  about  his  people 
for  protection.  We  may  not  withdraw,  saving 
for  that  secret  communion  which  girds  us.  Out, 
right  out  into  the  world's  needs  will  we  go,  too 
intent  for  its  salvation  to  dare  adopt  any  second- 
rate  measures  or  methods,  and  too  sure  of  the 
wealth  of  the  things  of  grace  to  dare  barter  with 
a  bankrupt  world.  The  fresh  fish  lives  in  the 
salt  water.  ''Our  polity  begins  in  the  heavens." 
We  must  be  cut  loose  from  this  world-spirit. 
The  world  which  knew  not  Christ  when  he  came 
among  us  in  the  flesh  does  not  know  him  yet,  and 
John  says  that  this  is  the  very  reason  it  does  not 
know  us  because  it  knew  not  him.  And  it  never 
will  know  Christ  until  it  has  lost  the  goaded, 
competitive,  vain,  self-assertive  spirit.  O  for  a 
baptism  of  Christian  faith. 

Fire  has  a  very  penetrating  quality.  Hide  it 
away  as  deeply  as  you  may,  and  if  it  has  fuel 
enough  and  draft  enough  it  will  burn  to  the  sur- 


286  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

face.  See  it  belching  out  of  the  crater  of  the  vol- 
cano and  darting  through  the  tops  of  the  flues  of 
the  great  factories.  Put  it  under  six  inches  of 
iron,  and  the  iron  will  become  hot  on  the  surface ; 
put  it  over  on  one  side  of  the  room,  and  it  will 
gradually  make  its  way  out,  until,  if  you  open 
the  door  on  the  other  side  to  enter  the  building, 
the  waves  of  heat  will  meet  you  there.  And  I  am 
glad  that  the  fire  of  the  Divine  Spirit  is  ever  pen- 
etrating and  will  find  its  way  to  the  surface. 
Christianity  is  not  shame-faced.  She  has  com- 
mitted no  crimes,  she  is  guilty  of  no  selfishness. 
Her  record  is  above  all  compare,  and  she  does  not 
require  to  hide  away  in  shame.  On  the  other 
hand,  her  characteristic  is  to  do,  to  give,  to  dare, 
to  turn  the  world  upside  down.  No  such  revolu- 
tionary thought  was  ever  cherished  in  the  mind 
of  man  as  that  thought  which  is  the  prime  factor 
in  the  Christian  religion — love  to  Cod  and  love  to 
man.  This  Holy  Spirit  fire  will  burn  out  to  the 
surface. 

It  will  take  the  cloud  off  the  face.  You 
may  not  know  that  your  face  shines;  Moses 
did  not  know  that  his  shone.  Had  he  known 
it,  vanity  might  have  stepped  in  and  beclouded 
it  again.  Disease,  too,  may  have  rendered 
the  skin  of  your  face  far  otherwise  than  ruddy, 
but  the  Divine  kindling  will  be  yours.  This  fire 
burns  out,  too,   into  the  conduct,  into  the  very 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  287 

movement  of  life.  I  have  actually  seen  people 
move  their  hands  with  beautiful  grace  when  a 
fresh  anointing  had  come  upon  their  hearts.  But 
this  effect  is  far  more  expressive  than  in  physical 
expression  or  physical  movement.  With  this  fire 
burning  within  us,  we  shall  let  people  know 
whether  we  are  servants  of  G-od  or  not.  At  the 
close  of  a  meeting  some  time  ago  a  gentleman 
came  up  to  me  and  said,  ' '  I  can  not  tell  you  how 
interested  I  was  in  those  few  words  spoken  by  my 
partner.  I  was  delighted.  It  completely  sur- 
prised me.  "We  have  been  partners  for  twelve 
years,  and  this  is  the  first  time  I  ever  knew  he 
professed  to  be  a  Christian."  Now,  the  man  in 
his  testimony  had  said  that  he  had  been  some 
twenty  years  in  the  service  of  the  Lord.  God 
forgive.  A  man  who  is  a  Christian  should  assert 
it.  I  hear  people  say  that  they  are  going  to  live 
it,  but  they  are  not  going  to  tell  it.  One  might 
as  well  say  that  he  is  going  to  be  dead-alive.  You 
can  not  be  a  Christian  without  telling  it.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  programme  to  tell  it.  In  this  con- 
nection the  Scriptures  mention  the  organ  with 
which  we  express  it.  The  mouth,  the  lips,  the 
tongue;  ''With  the  mouth  confession  is  made 
unto  salvation."  ''  My  lips  shall  show  forth  thy 
praise;"  and  when  Pentecost  came,  the  symbol 
was  the  tongue  of  fire.  But  people  say  it  is  better 
to  live  it  and  not  profess  it  than  to  profess  it  and 


288  OXJT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

not  live  it.  But  this  boat  has  two  oars,  the  one 
is  ''to  live  it,"  the  other  is  "  to  profess  it;"  if 
you  throw  away  either  oar  you  row  in  a  circle; 
with  the  use  of  both  oars  you  make  your  way 
heavenward.  It  is  painful  to  find  a  large  com- 
pany of  people  gathered  together  in  what  is  called 
a  Christian  testimony  meeting  when  only  the 
smallest  percentage  appears  to  have  anything  to 
testify.  As  if  there  were  nothing  to  say,  as  if 
Christ  were  not  on  trial,  or  as  if  no  struggle  were 
pending  and  no  great  victory  was  to  be  won.  I 
tell  you,  if  the  fire  of  the  Divine  Spirit  gets  into 
the  people's  hearts  it  will  revolutionize  the  testi- 
mony meetings  and  we  shall  not  only  be  ready  to 
speak,  but,  what  is  of  evidently  more  import,  we 
shall  be  faithful  witnesses  to  the  Christ,  and  men 
shall  feel  the  conviction  of  our  witness 

And  this  fire  of  the  Divine  Spirit  will  revolu- 
tionize our  social  customs.  I  think  I  see  the  day 
coming  when  an  afternoon  call  will  no  longer 
mean  a  few  casual  remarks  about  the  weather  and 
ordinary  things,  with  a  visitor's  card  added,  but 
when  if  no  other  method  will  successfully  lift  us 
out  of  this  insipid,  uninviting  custom,  we  shall 
have  Caller's  Societies  or  Leagues  or  Unions  to 
provide  a  programme,  so  that  for  one  month  all 
the  callers  may  converse  mainly  about  the  work 
of  the  Gospel  in  Africa,  and  another  month  the 
work  of  the  Gospel  in  India,  and  another  the  in- 


SCRIPTURE  SVMBOLS 


fluence  of  good  reading  upon  the  children,  etc. 
Must  we  hear  the  plea  that  the  people  would  not 
be  sufficiently  informed  to  converse  intelligently 
upon  the  subject  of  missions?  Then  they  may  be 
informed.  The  people  who  are  accustomed  to 
pay  social  calls  ought  to  be  informed.  Let  the 
fire  burn  brightly  enough  in  every  church  serv- 
ice, in  the  missionary  meetings  and  in  the  won- 
derful missionary  papers  and  magazines,  and  they 
will  be  ashamed  in  this  day  of  privilege  and  need 
to  ever  suggest  for  one  moment  a  paltry  excuse 
for  wasting  time  by  merely  "passing  the  time  " 
This  awful  lethargy,  whether  it  exhibits  itself  in 
the  cold  testimony  meeting  or  in  the  system  of 
polite  calls,  must  be  substituted  with  a  mighty 
quickening.  Our  Christian  expressions  are  too 
much  like  the  names  on  the  handkerchiefs  when 
they  used  to  print  them  with  old-fashioned  indel- 
ible ink.  They  had  to  pass  a  hot  iron^over  the 
printing,  so  as  to  bring  it  out  clearly  and  make 
it  legible.  The  deep  things  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
need  to  be  brought  out  to-day.  The  cold  refresh- 
ing water  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  well  One  of  the 
richest  compliments  I  have  yet  heard  paid  to  any 
man  was  paid  to  a  minister  of  Christ  who  has 
recently  spoken  in  most  of  the  cities  of  the  cen- 
tral and  eastern  States.  We  were  seated  at  the 
supper  table  when  his  work  became  a  subject  of 
comment.     One  of  the  company  said,  ' '  That  man 


290  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

made  me  think  of  Jesus  every  minute,"  and  her 
comment  was  promptly  followed  by  two  or  three 
others,  who  said  that  they  felt  the  very  same 
while  listening  to  him.  That  man  so  specializes 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he  says,  ' '  The 
Holy  Spirit's  fruit  and  chisf  work  is  to  get  Christ 
and  the  love  of  God  in  us  for  our  every-day  life." 
Love  burns. 

Fire  is  a  unifier.  Need,  awful  need,  stalks 
everywhere  about  us  while  perhaps  plenty  of  our 
strength  is  expended  and  certainly  enough  time 
occupied,  somehow,  and  too  often,  I  fear,  anyhow. 
But  the  claim  of  a  divine  harmony  is  wanting. 
We  can  not  steadily  execute  because  we  do  not 
steadily  keep  step;  mob-like  rather  than  army- 
like. It  is  as  useless  as  it  is  faithless  for  us  to 
say  that  the  harmony  can  not  exist  and  especially 
that  it  can  not  be  perpetuated  long,  where  the 
peculiarities  of  many  people  are  to  be  taken  into 
account.  It  will  cost  our  great  Savior  no  more 
taxing  of  strength  to  keep  a  soul  true  for  a 
minute  than  for  a  second,  or  for  a  day  than  for  a 
minute.  Do  not  think  of  any  strain  being  placed 
upon  the  strength  of  the  Lord  in  keeping  us. 

<'Tell  me,"  said  a  trembling  soul,  "how  the 
Lord  can  keep  one  spotless  every  day."  The 
teacher  answered,  ' '  I  carried  a  vessel  full  of  oil 
all  the  way  around  the  city  without  spilling  a 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  291 

drop  of  it.     How  did  I  do  it  ?     I  kept  my  eye  on 
it  all  the  time." 

The  Almighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father, 
fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary.  Then  he  can  just 
as  easily  keep  us  for  a  year,  or  a  century,  or  a 
million  centuries,  as  for  a  second.  Indeed,  we 
mortals  are  not  acquainted  with  time,  anyway. 
When  I  was  a  boy  the  length  of  time  from  Christ- 
mas to  Christmas  seemed  like  a  century,  now  it 
seems  rather  like  a  day.  When  we  awaken  in 
the  morning,,  the  night's  sleep  appears  to  have 
been  but  an  instant.  Wrapped  in  conversation, 
time  passes  unnoticed.  So  we  do  not  know  time. 
I  can  not  tell  whether  the  battle  is  long  or  short. 
With  the  Lord  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day. 
And  it  is  equally  true  that  God  can  as  easily  keep 
a  million'souls  as  one,  in  perfect  accord.  George 
Miiller  uttered  a  great  philosophy  when  he  was 
first  called  of  God  to  build  his  large  orphanage. 
Said  he,  "I  knew  that  the  Lord  could  as  easily 
support  a  thousand  orphans  through  me  as  three 
hundred."     Yes.     He  can  do  it. 

Then,  too,  we  show  a  want  of  faith  in  both  God 
and  man  by  our  chronic  emphasis  upon  reporting 
things.  This  religious  denomination  is  of  such  a 
size,  and  it  collected  so  much  money.  The  property 
of  that  religious  denomination  is  valued  at  so  such. 
The  converts  for  the  year  aggregated  so  many. 
The  effect  of  all  this  would  not  be  so  serious  were  it 


OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 


not  a  fact  that  the  habit  colors  our  estimates  and 
casts  a  sort  of  hard,  mathematical  influence  about 
the  work  until  one  is  led  to  wonder  whether  the 
Lord  will   not   repeat  the    history    of    Gideon's 
army  and  deplete  the  numbers.     It  is   nothing 
new   to  hear  men  say  to-day  that  the  greatest 
danger  of  a  religious  organization  is  its  vastness. 
Why  ?     This  is  not  necessarily  so.     Our  Lord  is 
the  God  of  the  millions  and  his  resources  are  in- 
finite.    But  remember  the  real  work  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  can  not  be  read  from  an  annual  report. 
You  may  report  calls,  so  many,  and  the  distance 
between  them,  so  many  rods,  and  the  length  of 
each  call,    so   many  minutes,   but  you    can   not 
report  so  many  yards  high,   and  so  many  yards 
wide,  and  so  many  yards  deep,    of  fidelity.     The 
thing  is  unreportable.     God  weighs  where  man 
measures.     Man    runs    into   mathematics,     God 
holds  to  dynamics.     Let  the  report  be  the  var- 
nish if  you  will  but  let  the  great,  holy,   divine 
principle  be  the  structure. 

And  that  shrewd  eye  which  prides  itself  in 
keenly  estimating  grades  of  redeemed  men,  so 
that  it  promptly  distinguishes  between  what  it 
pronounces  <'the  upper  and  the  lower  classes,"  is 
not  a  safe  discerner  of  the  movements  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Strife  in  the 
church  is  the  same  evil  monster  that  it  is  in  the 
bar-room,  only  the  garb  is  different.     Ten  fingers 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  293 

on  two  hands  obey  the  will  of  one  person,  and  a 
truly  surrendered  people,  even  the  body  of  Christ, 
shall  harmonize  with  the  One  Divine  Will. 

At  a  great  camp  meeting  scores  of   tents  were 
pitched  in  the  grove  just  out  of  the  city.     These 
and  the  board    cottages  accommodated  hundreds 
of  people.     Many  of   them  cooked  their  own  food 
during  the  sacred   outing.     Meetings    were  held 
almost  hourly  and   continued  late    at   night.     A 
heavy  rain  fell  and  the  bedding  had  to  be  carried 
out  of  the  tents  into  the  sunlight  which  followed. 
Many  of  the  people  carried  fruits    and  other  pro- 
visions from  the    city,  necessitating  a  long  walk 
each  trip.     Thus  the  people  were  kept  unusually 
busy.     Their  tents  were  close  together  and  many 
conveniences  were  wanting.     Yet  they  lived  for 
a  week  without  a  known  disagreement.     No  need 
of    police    interference — no    violence,    no   harsh 
words ;  but  singing,  praying,  weeping,  and  buoy- 
ant victoriousness  prevailed  there.     Stand  off  and 
look     upon    the     scene,     and    let    us    consider: 
If  Grod  would  give  those  hundreds  and  thousands 
to  live  so  harmoniously  for  a  week  why  may  we 
not  claim  the  same  victory  for  the  multitudes, 
and  years  of  it,  too.     Or  surely  we  may  claim  it 
in  Missionary  Societies,  in  Young  Peoples'  Socie- 
ties, in  Sunday  Schools,  in  assemblies  of  preachers 
and  of  Christian  workers,  yea   in  the  church  of 
Christ.      Do   you  say  how  shall    we  secure    this 


894  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

blessed  unity  ?  G-ive  us  the  rules.  Ah,  there  is 
the  trouble.  We  would  adopt  the  rules,  we 
would  pay  the  money,  we  would  fast  and  read 
and  plan  and  toil,iibut  we  would  not  meet  that 
crisis  which  we  fear.  We  dread  to  open  wide 
the  hearing  of  the  soul  and  let  those  words 
search  us,  ' '  You  must  either  deny  self  or  Christ  " 
That  awful  crisis  moment  reveals  our  cowardice. 
Faith  is  heroism.  Let  us  dare  to  die.  Let  us  be 
brave  enough  to  give  up  the  ambition  to  live 
here  a  long  time,  goaded  on  by  a  kind  of  relig- 
ious hypochondria.  Let  us  count  God  in,  and 
say,  ' '  Thy  sweet  will  is  enough  '  Let  us  meet 
the  crisis.  Satan  will  say  you  will  die  physi- 
cally, you  will  be  poor,  you  will  defeat  all  the 
better  possibilities  of  your  character,  you  will  be 
hidden  away,  no  one  will  know  you,  you  will  be  a 
fool  Let  us  say,  ' '  Granted.  I  must  choose :  I 
will  choose  the  will  of  God;  I  die  that  I  may  live. 
Holy  Spirit,  it  is  enough." 

Come  gently,  moments  of  mine.  Gladly  I  greet 
you,  fresh  from  my  Father's  hands.  My  future  is 
not  a  speculative  future.  It  is  all  good  in  the 
pledge  of  my  Redeemer.  Come,  then,  moments 
of  mine;  ye  bring  me  naught  but  good. 

The  whole  difficulty  is  the  want  of  that  faith 
which  receives  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  neglect 
may  be  largely  cultivated  through  fear  of  fanat- 
icism or  a  delicate  fondness  for  moderation,  rather 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  295 

than  a  violent  prejudice  Anything  will  do,  the 
one  object  of  the  enemy  being  to  keep  us  from 
the  victory.  No  two  people  will  probably  think 
exactly  the  same  in  detail,  but  we  can  fall  prone 
into  the  hands  of  Him  who  breathes  the  breath 
of  holy  life  within  us.  We  can  give  up  to  God, 
throwing  away  the  millionaire  spirit  and  assert- 
ing the  spirit  of  deepest  want. 

There,  at  the  very  opposite  of  this  spirit  of 
harmony,  lies  our  competition  and  strife  which  has 
given  rise  to  that  sort  of  religious  mathematics, 
which,  like  the  frost  with  the  feeble  meadow 
brook,  threatens  to  freeze  solidly  the  genuinely 
spiritual  activities  of  the  organizations  it  afflicts. 
A  living  child  two  feet  in  height  is  unspeakably 
preferable  to  a  dead  doll — a  thing — six  feet  in 
height.     The  Lord  send  us  living  unity. 

2.  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  symbol  of  water. 
I  have  before  called  your  attention  to  Jesus'  words 
in  the  seventh  chapter  of  John,  where  He  em- 
ployed this  symbol  during  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles. 

What  a  beautiful  and  expressive  symbol !  See 
it  in  the  iris  bend  as  a  wreath  about  the  brow  of 
the  storm,  see  it  in  the  soft-tinted  veil  over  the 
rising  sun,  or  the  white,  fluffy  frill  about  the 
evening  star;  beautiful  in  the  brook,  beautiful  in 
the  river,  beautiful  in  the  sea,  the  fountain,  the 
ice-cake,  or  the  dew-drop. 


296  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

The  Psalmist  speaks  about  the  beauty  of  holi- 
ness. If  we  should  undertake  to  represent  the 
graces  of  the  Spirit  with  the  use  of  human  char- 
acters, how  beautiful  we  would  require  to  make 
the  faces! 

What  is  more  refreshing  than  the  water  to  the 
thirsty  pilgrim,  as  he  drinks  it,  or  to  the  dusty- 
traveler,  as  he  bathes  in  it.  The  grass,  the 
flowers  and  the  trees  wear  new  forms  of  beauty 
and  share  a  new  life,  after  the  warm  showers 
have  fallen.  The  dry,  adobe  plains  of  the  West 
are  turned  into  splendid  gardens,  luxuriant  with 
harvest.  What  did  it?  Water.  Why  that 
stretch  of  country  yonder,  bearing  now  and  then 
a  bunch  of  grease  weed,  while  here,  within  a  few 
rods  of  it,  fruits  and  flowers  abound  ?  Water. 
Water  has  been  brought  from  yonder  mountain 
lake  or  stream  in  the  canon,  and  the  refreshing 
is  like  the  roses  on  the  cheek  of  health.  And 
when  the  Divine  Spirit  is  fully  entertained  in  our 
souls,  how  refreshing  !  Human  cares  lose  their 
drudgery,  common  duties  cease  to  be  irksome, 
the  feverish  thirst  for  something  exciting  is 
gone,  and  the  soul  loves  the  philosophy  of  Jesus' 
words,  <'  He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is 
least  is  faithful  also  in  much."  We  do  not 
require  the  overdrawn  plot  of  the  exciting  story 
to  rouse  up  our  spirits  to  the  point  of  endurance. 
We  drink  of  the  water  from  the  hidden  rock  and 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  297 

bathe  in  the  fountain  of  perpetual  strength  until 
«'the  inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day." 
Does  the  reader  know  the  secret  of  this  precious 
refreshing  ?  Have  you  gone  alone  and  found 
a  really  new  revelation  of  faith  or  hope  or  love  to 
your  soul  ?  Have  you  seen  that  these  things 
which  are  prime  truths  to  God,  devoid  of  all 
speculation  and  dreaminess,  were  becoming  very 
real  to  you  ?  You  have  proven  his  refreshing  in 
the  communion  of  Christian  people  and  in  seeking 
to  help  the  most  helpless.  You  have  proven 
what  the  world  wonderingly,  or  may  be  helplessly, 
hears,  that  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive."  Now,  for  you,  tnrough all  nature,  reve- 
lation and  providence,  the  Holy  Spirit  offers  an 
infinite  refreshing  An  apple  now  and  then  ? 
Yours  is  the  liberty  of  the  whole  orchard. 

But  the  water  is  more  than  refreshing  and  beau- 
tiful. What  a  carrier  is  water.  What  floating 
cities  find  their  way  from  continent  to  continent, 
while  the  old  ocean  bears  their  burdens,  and  it 
seems  as,  easy  for  the  ocean  to  carry  a  steel-clad 
as  to  carry  a  feather.  The  Divine  Spirit  within 
us  shall  render  us  burden-bearers.  There  is 
plenty  to  do.  The  calls  are  loud  enough,  the  want 
is  vast  enough,  but  the  heart  to  do  it,  and  do  it 
steadily,  day  in  and  day  out,  without  wearing- 
down  into  harshness  and  complaining,  we  never 


298  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

can   find,  unless   the  Holy  Spirit  comes  as  the 
water  to  bear  us  and  our  burdens  along. 

3.  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  symbol  of  a  dove^ 
specially  used  at  the  time  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus. 
The  dove  has  long  been  held  to  be  the  symbol  of 
modesty,  gentleness  and  peace.  She  will  not 
nestle  among  the  briars  or  rude  surroundings. 
Her  nest  is  downy  and  soft.  And  it  is  one  of  the 
sweet  characteristics  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he 
prepares  -the  nest  for  himself  in  our  souls,  with 
mildness  and  gentleness  for  its  lining.  That 
sweet  subduing  is  often  manifested  in  tears  of 
tenderness,  like  the  thawing  out  of  winter,  pre- 
paring for  the  spring  showers  to  come.  Unkind 
words  and  unkind  looks  do  not  belong  to  that 
soul  which  is  the  nesting  place  of  the  heavenly 
dove.  His  gentleness  doth  make  us  great.  What 
could  be  more  appropriate  than  this  symbol  at 
the  baptism  of  him  ' '  who  is  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart."  Why,  it  seems  almost  superfluous  to 
speak  of  Jesus  as  sweet-tempered  and  gentle! 
The  Holy  Spirit  will  make  us  like  himself.  The 
ruffled  soul  can  not  speak  even  the  truth  well, 
because  it  is  to  be  "  spoken  in  love." 

4.  Then  there  is  the  symbol  of  the  wind.  This 
is  another  of  those  strange,  swift  forces  so  com- 
mon to  this  world.  Jesus  told  Nicodemus  that 
we  could  not  tell  whence  it  came  or  where  it  went. 
The  little  breath  of  morning  air,  called  the  rustle 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  299 

of  the  dawn,  gathers  little  breaths  to  itself,  until 
volume  after  volume  has  become  harmonized,  and 
then  sweeping  over  the  hill  tops,  it  plays  with  the 
fields  of  grain  and  the  tall  trees,  and  the  sailing 
clouds,  the  wind-mills  and  the  seas,  as  if  it  had  a 
limitless  sweep  and  cared  not  how  great  the  de- 
mand. It  gets  into  the  sails  of  the  ships  and  pro- 
pels them  on  their  course,  it  gets  into  the  wind- 
mills and  pumps  the  water  for  the  farm. 

This  great  motive  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
wherever  cherished,  has  been  signalized  as  the 
mighty  motive  power  of  God.  The  heavenly 
motive  power!  This  power  got  into  the  heart 
of  Paul,  until  day  and  night  he  sought  a  lost 
world,  like  a  mother  seeking  a  lost  child.  He 
preached,  he  toiled  with  his  own  hands,  he 
pleaded,  he  prayed,  he  wept;  imprisoned,  he  wit- 
nessed for  Christ;  set  free,  he  journeyed  on  foot 
from  country  to  country;  caught  in  a  storm  at 
sea,  he  communed  with  God  and  taught  the  peo- 
ple; cast  upon  a  desert  island,  he  so  displayed  the 
presence  of  God  with  him,  that  the  natives  gathered 
together  provisions  and  put  them  on  ship-board 
with  him,  and  when  he  resumed  his  journey  he 
feared  neither  Rome,  nor  the  Romans,  nor  death. 
In  the  mighty  sway  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  he 
moved  through  this  thankless  world  to  represent 
the  Christ.  And  he  still  keeps  moving.  This 
mighty  force  has  moved  men  and  women,   until 


300  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

they  could  not  remain  surrounded  by  their  com- 
forts and  apparent  advantages.  David  Living- 
stone was  entreated  not  to  be  so  foolish  as  to  bury 
his  great  intellect  in  Africa.  William  Carey,  after 
drawing  rude  maps  on  old  pieces  of  paper  and  sole 
leather  in  his  shoe  shop,  determined  to  go  to  India. 
Count  Zinzendorf,  the  father  of  Moravian  mis- 
sions, stirred  to  the  depths  while  looking  upon 
Stenburg's  altar  piece  picture  of  the  crucifixion, 
under  which  was  written, 

"  All  this  I  did  for  thee; 
What  hast  thou  done  for  me  ?  " 

threw  his  fortune  out  to  humanity  as  an  offering 
of  holy  love.  How  this  mighty  force  moved  upon 
the  soul  of  the  sainted  Frances  Ridley  Havergal. 
"Perhaps,"  she  says,  "you  will  be  interested  to 
know  the  origin  of  the  consecration  hymn,  '  Take 
my  life.'  I  went  for  a  little  visit  of  five  days. 
There  were  ten  persons  in  the  house,  some  un- 
converted and  long  prayed  for,  some  converted 
but  not  all  rejoicing  Christians.  He  gave  me  the 
prayer,  <Lord  give  me  all  in  this  house! '  And 
he  just  did.  Before  I  left  the  house  every  one 
had  got  a  blessing.  The  last  night  of  my  visit  I 
was  too  happy  to  sleep,  and  passed  most  of  the 
night  in  praise  and  renewal  of  my  own  consecra- 
tion, and  these  little  couplets  formed  themselves 
and  chimed  in  my  heart,  one  after  another,  till 
they  finished  with,    'Ever,  only,  all  for  thee!'" 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  301 

We  may  not  belittle  the  great  undertakings  of 
Christian  people  during  the  past  centuries.  We 
may  not  forget  the  toil  and  endurance  of  our 
fathers  who  opened  out  these  new  countries  for 
habitation,  but  O,  no  being  can  tell  the  need  of  a 
mighty  motive  power  in  the  activities  to-day. 

Under  this  mighty  inspiration  the  power  of 
endurance  would  be  ours.  We  hear  very  much 
to-day  about  the  swift  activities  of  the  day  in 
which  we  live,  but  I  question  if  we  have  begun 
to  realize  the  extent  of  our  powers  of  endurance, 
when  we  are  harmoniously  committed  to  the 
Lord's  will.  We  do  not  wear  out  with  the  work 
as  we  do  with  the  worry.  This  constant  effort 
to  pump  up  energy  enough  to  keep  us  faithful  is 
enough  to  slay  us,  but  when  the  Holy  Spirit 
comes,  as  a  mighty  motive  power,  to  live  within 
us,  then  our  activities  are  his  activities,  and  the 
sweet  rest  of  the  busy  undertakings  increases 
our  capacity  as  it  does  our  delight. 

The  money  is  about  us,  we  have  the  co-opera- 
tive congeniality  of  an  open  field,  the  world  has 
become  a  neighborhood,  and  no  small  percentage 
of  the  intelligent  people  of  the  heathen  nations 
are  fond  of  our  civilization.  Organizations  are 
wonderfully  perfected,  and  the  needs  of  humanity 
are  recognized  as  never  before  in  the  history  of 
Christendom.  Yes,  indeed,  the  ships  are  good 
ships,  the  waters  are  good  waters  and  the  course 


303  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

is  a  good  course  J  may  the  Lord  send  us  the  pro- 
pelling power. 

The  wind  is  a  very  cleansing  element.  It 
searches  the  garments  hung  out  in  the  open  air, 
cleansing  away  their  impurities  with  its  sweet- 
ness. Indeed,  the  wind  and  the  fire  and  the 
water  are  all  cleansers,  and  when  God  mani- 
fested himself  to  humanity  in  this  latest,  suprem- 
est  way,  it  was  in  his  plan,  and  it  is  still  there, 
to  make  us  a  people  with  clean  hearts  and  clean 
minds.  No  stains  go  so  deeply  as  stains  in  the 
character,  no  washing  needs  to  be  so  well  done  as 
the  washing  of  the  soul.  The  prayer  of  David 
was  based  upon  soundest  philosophy,  ''Wash  me 
throughly  from  mine  iniquity. ' ' 

5.  The  last  symbol  to  which  I  will  call  your 
attention  is  that  of  the  seal.  You  know  how 
the  seal  is  used  in  city  and  government 
offices,  in  court  rooms  and  business  houses. 
The  die  bears  some  picture  upon  it,  chosen 
by  those  who  own  it,  and  when  some  docu- 
ment is  to  be  sealed,  melted  wax  is  poured 
over  the  place  and  the  seal  is  firmly  set  down 
upon  the  melted  wax.  The  picture  on  the  die  is 
left  in  the  wax,  and  the  property  is  said  to  be 
sealed.  The  use  of  the  wax  was  quite  common  in 
ancient  days.  Great  writings  were  inscribed 
with  the  use  of  a  stilus  in  wax,  covering  the  tops 
of  the  tables.     Here  the  sealing  of  the  document 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS 


is  used  as  a  symbol.  Now,  the  Holy  Spirit  rep- 
resents the  seal,  and  we  represent  the  wax.  You 
know  in  the  use  of  wax  for  sealing  purposes  it  is 
necessary  to  have  it  thoroughly  heated,  until  it 
is  quite  soft  and  yielding,  otherwise  the  wax 
would  break  into  pieces  and  no  impression  would 
be  left.  The  seal  must  also  be  held  firmly,  so  that 
the  impression  becomes  accurate.  Now,  here  is 
the  illustration;  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  seal  and 
we  are  the  wax.  The  government  of  heaven 
would  claim  us,  and  the  order  is  given  for  the  seal- 
ing. Our  heavenly  Father  is  more  willing  to  give 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him,  than  a 
father  is  to  give  bread  unto  his  children.  Dr.  A. 
J.  Gordon  says  that  when  we  come  to  Christ  for 
pardon  we  set  to  our  seal  that  God  is  true,  but 
when  He  seals  us  with  the  Holy  Spirit  he  asserts 
that  we  are  true.  Have  you,  dear  reader,  this 
double  sealing? 

As  for  the  firmness  of  the  seal,  God  will  care  for 
that;  but  as  for  the  plastic  condition  of  the  wax, 
we  must  see  to  that.  Our  wills  fully  yielding, 
our  affections  cheerfully  assenting,  our  whole 
beings  prone  in  his  presence,  the  Holy 
Spirit  shall  produce  the  impression.  And 
what  do  you  think  the  picture  on  the 
seal  is  ?  I  think  it  is  the  image  of  Jesus.  For 
"He  that  saith  he  loveth  Him  ought  himself  also 
to  walk  even  as  He  walked,"  and   "This  was  the 


304  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

mystery  which  was  hidden  from  the  ages,  Christ 
in  you  the  hope  of  glory."  Again,  "If  we  have 
borne  the  image  of  the  earthly  we  shall  also  bear 
the  image  of  the  heavenly." 

And  Paul  continues,  ''We  are  sealed  with 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  adoption,"  and  this  is  the 
earnest  of  our  inheritance;  that  is,  if  we  are 
sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  adoption  we  have 
the  first  portions  of  the  coming  possessions,  the 
heavenly  wealth.  A  little  piece  of  heaven,  a  slice 
from  the  big  loaf,  has  been  given  us  here ;  we  have 
the  foretaste.  Bear  in  mind  that  this  foretaste 
becomes  ours  through  the  sealing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

In  those  days,  when  a  man  bought  a  flock  of 
sheep,  the  bargain  was  made  and  the  man  who 
sold  them  took  a  piece  of  wool  from  a  sheep  and 
gave  it  to  the  other,  just  as  a  man  to-day  might 
pay  five  dollars  down  to  bind  the  bargain.  If  a 
man  sold  a  field  in  those  days,  the  man  who 
bought  it  was  to  get  a  bag  of  earth  from  the  field 
as  a  token  of  the  bargain.  Mr.  Haslam  gives  a 
very  interesting  illustration  of  this  in  our  day. 
He  sold  a  large  elm  tree  to  a  deaf  man,  in  Eng- 
land, who  promptly  paid  him  a  shilling.  Placing 
the  amount  in  Mr.  Haslam's  hand  he  shouted, 
"That  is  earnest."  When  he  had  nodded  his  as- 
sent the  deaf  man  repeated  again,  "Mind,  that  is 
earnest."     The  price  of  the  tree  was  ten  pounds. 


SCRIPTURE  SY3IB0LS  305 

The  shilling  was  not  to  be  returned,  but  it  was 
part  payment.  Now,  the  apostle  says  the  Holy 
Spirit  seals  us,  and  that  this  is  the  earnest  of  our 
inheritance  until  the  reward  of  our  purchased 
possession.  Everything  we  ever  get  in  heaven 
we  are  going  to  get  here.  Love,  the  love  of  God, 
is  in  heaven,  the  love  of  God  is  in  our  hearts. 
Peace,  the  peace  of  God,  is  in  heaven,  the  peace 
of  God  is  in  our  hearts.  The  joy  of  God  is  in 
heaven,  the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  our  strength.  The 
life  of  God  is  in  heaven,  the  life  of  God  is  here. 
Christ  is  as  able  to  save  me  before  I  die  as  he  ever 
is,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  as  truly  here  as  he  is 
in  heaven.  What  is  this  that  burns  in  my  heart 
and  comes  out  in  expressions  of  praise  ?  Why, 
it  is  a  little  piece  of  heaven.  What  is  this  that 
makes  me  want  to  see  every  one  else  turn  from 
sin?  Why,  it  is  a  little  piece  of  heaven.  What  is 
this  which  makes  my  soul  rest  calmly  in  trial? 
Why,  it  is  a  little  piece  of  heaven.  "Well,"  said 
the  visitor  to  a  sick  Scotchman,  ' '  you  have  one 
great  comfort,  you  will  soon  be  in  heaven  and  get 
out  of  this  poor,  afflicted  body."  The  old  man 
looked  up  and  smiled  and  said,  "  Heaven!  I  have 
been  there  ten  years  already."  This  is  paradise 
regained.  The  following  taken  from  Eev.  Asa 
Mahan's  book,  "Out  of  Darkness  Into  Light,"  sug- 
gests very  happily  this  kind  of  a  heaven  life.  He 
says,    "A  sister   in    Christ,  whom  I  knew  very 


306  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

intimately  for  upwards  of  fifteen  years  prior  to 
her  death,  was  when  I  first  saw  her  so  far  from 
Christ  that  she  had  merely,  as  she  herself  often 
said,  '  a  name  to  live. '  She  immediately  sought 
and  obtained  'the  sealing  and  earnest  of 
the  Spirit.'  From  that  time  until  she  was 
called  home,  '  her  sun  did  not  go  down, 
neither  did  the  moon  withdraw  itself. '  Her  own 
family  and  all  who  knew  her  most  intimately  tes- 
tified that  they  never  witnessed  in  her  an  un- 
Christ-like  act  or  utterance.  In  every  circle  in 
which  she  appeared  her  single  aim  was  to  lead 
sinners  to  Christ,  or  believers  '  out  of  darkness 
into  the  marvelous  light  of  God,'  and  she  had 
'  power  with  God  and  man.'  At  home  she  was  as 
a  farmer's  wife,  a  model  housekeeper,  and  at  home 
and  in  the  community  her  influence  was  '  as 
ointment  poured  forth.'  All  who  knew  her  will 
testify  to  the  strictest  accuracy  of  the  above 
statements.  At  one  time  her  husband  employed 
as  a  help  in  his  labors  a  very  bigoted  but  pro- 
fane Irish  Catholic,  who  had  been  taught  from 
infancy  that  out  of  the  Catholic  Church  salvation 
is  impossible.  His  attention  was  soon  arrested, 
however,  by  the  wondrous  serenity  and  sweetness 
of  that  woman's  spirit  and  conversation.  At  the 
table  he  would  listen  with  the  intensest  interest 
to  her  conversation  upon  the  love  of  Christ  and 


SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLS  307 

the  beauty  of  holiness.  He  would  frequently- 
tarry  after  meals  to  speak  to  the  woman  on  the 
subject.  As  he  had  been  listening  for  some  time 
to  her  conversation  one  day,  he  exclaimed  with 
deep  earnestness,  '  Madame,  you  will  get  to 
heaven  before  you  die. '  That  is  it.  A  little  cor- 
ner of  heaven  in  your  kitchen,  another  little  corner 
in  your  workshop,  another  little  corner  of  heaven 
in  your  store,  and  another  little  corner  in  your 
school  room." 

Then  will  not  heaven  be  wonderfully  more  ? 
Yes,  yes.  We  have  the  little  handful  of  wool, 
but  there  is  the  whole  flock  of  sheep ;  we  have  the 
little  bagful  of  earth,  but  there  are  the  great  big 
fields  which  we  could  not  carry  away  in  five  cen- 
turies. O,  yes,  I  get  as  if  the  little  edge  of  the 
thumb-nail  here,  I  get  the  whole  Infinite  nature 
forever  there.  ' '  Now  we  see  as  in  a  glass  darkly, 
then  face  to  face.  Now  I  know  in  part,  then  shall  I 
know  even  as  also  I  am  known."  Nor  is  it  a  rash 
thing  to  say  that  if  I  am  ever  going  to  call  Christ 
all  in  all  in  heaven,  if  I  am  ever  going  to  be 
awakened  in  his  likeness  to  be  all  in  all  and 
always  his,  I  ought  to  begin  to  get  his  very  own 
life  within  me  at  once  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  May  he  find  our  hearts  so  passive  that  he 
can  stamp  the  Christ  image  upon  our  characters 
and  we  shall  be  sealed.      Then  by  and  by  the  fig- 


308  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ure,  the  symbol,  shall  not  be  needed,  for  we  shall 
be  no  longer  little  children  in  the  first  grades  of 
the  school,  but  we  shall  graduate  into  the  holy 
business  of  eternity. 


NOT  YOUR  OWN. 


"  Every  sin  suffered  to  remain  in  the  heai*t  raises  ^ 
family."  Elijah  P.  Beown. 

"  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  ask  God  to  help  us  to  work; 
we  should  rather  give  up  ourselves  to  him  that  he  may 
use  us.  Therefore,  instead  of  our  asking  him  to  help 
us,  we  should  understand  that  he  is  asking  us  to  help 
him.  The  work  is  not  ours,  but  his;  and  he  is  the  worker 
or  doer  of  it.  It  matters  little  how  unworthy  the  instru- 
ment, the  great  Lord  can  accomplish  his  purpose  with 
it.  The  weaker  the  tool,  the  greater  is  the  glory  of  him 
who  can  produce  successful  results." 

Rev.  Wm   Haslam. 

Ve  are  not  your  own.     1  Corinthians  vi:19. 

"  Be  sure  that  at  the  root  of  all  real  experience  of 
more  grace,  of  all  true  advance  in  consecration,  of  all 
actually  increasing  conformity  to  the  likeness  of  Jesus, 
there  must  be  a  deadness  to  self  that  proves  itself  to  God 
and  men  in  our  dispositions  and  habits.  It  is  sadly  pos- 
sible to  speak  of  the  death-life  and  the  Spirit-walk, 
while  even  the  tenderest  love  can  not  but  see  how  much 
there  is  of  self.  The  death  to  self  has  no  surer  death- 
mark  than  a  humility  which  makes  itself  of  no  reputa- 
tion, which  empties  out  itself,  and  takes  the  form  of  a 
servant.  It  is  possible  to  speak  much  and  honestly  of 
fellowship  with  a  despised  and  rejected  Jesus,  and  of 
bearing  his  cross,  while  the  meek  and  lowly,  the  kind 
and  gentle  humility  of  the  Lamb  of  God  is  not  seen,  is 
scarcely  sought.  The  Lamb  of  God  means  two  things — 
meekness  and  death.  Let  us  seek  to  receive  him  in 
both  forms.  In  him  they  are  inseparable;  they  must 
be  in  us,  too."  Andrew  Murray. 


NOT  YOUR  OWN. 

"\1  Ze  can  scarcely  be  too  often  reminded  of  the 
preciousness  of  the  thought  that  our  Father 
in  Heaven  knows  all  about  us.  For,  if  any  de- 
fects are  apparent,  he  is  so  able  and  willing  to 
remedy  them.  He  upbraideth  not.  And  if  any 
commendable  conditions  exist  he  will  reward  and 
glorify  them.  We  need  not  fear  his  searching. 
It  is  the  searching  of  love.  Only  let  us  be  in  his 
hands  perfectly  passive,  that  he  may  search  us 
and  try  us.     What  better  time  than  now? 

I  sometimes  say  that  we  need  barber-shop  con- 
secration. If  men  would  commit  themselves  to 
Christ  as  they  do  to  a  barber  who  shaves  them, 
what  marvelous  results  would  follow.  See  this 
man  in  the  barber's  chair.  He  dare  not  talk  or 
laugh  or  gesture.  There  he  reclines.  The  bar- 
ber, perhaps  a  total  stranger  to  him,  proceeds  to 
lather  his  face,  and  then  with  a  keen-edged  knife 
drawn  near  the  eyes  or  over  jugular  vein,  he 
shaves  the  man,  turning  his  head  as  he  wishes, 
catching  him  by  the  nose  or  ears,  pinching  the 
skin  between  his  fingers  and  thumb,  until  finally 
he  gives  him  notice  to  arise  and  go  a  clean-faced 


312  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

pilgrim.  And  if  you  would  resign  yourself  so 
exactly  to  Christ,  how  he  would  clean  you  up, 
until  the  pure  soul  would  shed  its  light  all  over 
the  face.  This  and  nothing  less  than  this  is  our 
proper  position  before  G-od.  The  claim  is  as  gen- 
tle as  it  is  righteous,  "Ye  are  not  your  own." 

We  are  not  self -producers  of  good.     These  con- 
stant supplies  of  provision  and  clothing  are  the 
outflowings  of  an  infinite  heart.     It  is  one  of  the 
most  rational  acts  conceivable  to  ' '  ask  the  bless- 
ing" at  the  table.     In   many  homes   they   say 
" make  a  beginning "  instead  of  "ask  the  bless- 
ing" or   "return  thanks."      There  is  really  no 
other  rational  way  to  make  a  beginning  at  meals 
than  that  of  acknowledging  the  G-iver  and  seek- 
ing direction  concerning  that  which  exerts  an  in- 
fluence so  wide-reaching  and  so  acute.     I  asked 
the  bread  where  it  came  from,  and  it  said  from  the 
flour-bin.     I  went  to  the  flour-bin  and  asked  it 
where  bread  came  from.     It  answered  from  the 
mill.     I  asked  the  mill.     It  said  from  the  mow 
Then  I  questioned  the  mow,  and  it  told  me  from 
the  field.     Then  in  the  cold  of  winter,  when  the 
winds  blew  and  the  ice  sheeted  the   earth  like 
armor,  I  asked  of  the  field  where  the  bread  came 
from,  when  it  replied,  God  sends  the  sunshine  and 
the  showers,  God  made  the  wheat-germ,  and  in  due 
time  you  will  find  the  wheat  product  here  waving, 
golden  in  the  summer  sun.     God  gives  the  bread. 


NOT  YOUR  OWN  313 

Go  thy  way,  pray  it  again:  '< Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread. "  But  man  toiled  for  it.  Yes, 
but  where  did  he  get  the  strength  and  ingenuity 
for  toil?  Man  does  not  produce;  he  gathers,  he 
receives.  And  as  for  the  clothing,  the  sheep 
wear  the  woolens  first,  the  wild  animals  the 
furs,  the  domesticated  animals  the  shoes,  and 
the  fields  the  cottons,  then,  by  the  blessed  provi- 
dential law  of  need  and  supply  they  are  raised  to 
the  higher  uses  of  man:  for  ''Your  heavenly 
Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these 
things." 

How  prepared  they  were  when  we  came.  What 
hands  received  us,  what  soft  garments  clothed 
us,  what  provision  sustained  us.  We  were 
received  as  kings'  sons  into  palaces.  Born  re- 
ceivers !  Why  should  we  contest  the  original 
and  uninterrupted  claim  of  God  our  Father. 
There  is  a  phrase  quite  commonly  used  which 
might  be  substituted  with  a  much  safer  one. 
It  is  this,  ' '  Take  God  into  partnership  with  you. " 
I  have  two  objections  to  this  expression,  either 
one  of  which  seems  to  be  sufficient  reason  why  a 
better  phrase  should  be  substituted  for  it.  The 
first  objection  is  this:  I  never  produced  anything 
to  deposit  upon  which  I  could  have  a  claim  as 
a  partner.  And  the  second  is  this:  Since  the 
self-life  is  so  truly  a  life,  and  as  such,  so  surely 
assertive;   if  the  Lord   and  I  were  really  part- 


314  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

ners,  it  would  not  be  long  before,  instead  of  it  be- 
ing the  Lord  and  I,  it  would  be  I  and  the  Lord. 
No,  no,  the  Lord  is  proprietor.  Let  us  walk 
right  up  by  faith  to  the  first  commandment  and 
plight  our  loyalty  to  our  God  as  King  and  Master. 
We  are  very  costly  kind  of  property.  Who  of  us 
can  tell  what  expenditures  are  represented  in  a 
single  soul,  centuries  before  it  appears  on  this 
earth.  Although  we  might  not  be  able  to 
reckon  any  of  these  things  as  directly  involved 
in  our  being  created,  yet  their  influence 
can  be  directly  traced  in  the  soul  quality 
or  tone  of  character.  Those  ancient  heroes  and 
heroines  who  followed  G-od  by  faith  until  He  spoke 
in  plain  terms  of  peace  and  assurance  to  them, 
they  lived  for  me.  Those  faithful  ones  who 
veered  not  from  the  holy  way  when  lions,  and 
fires  and  dungeons  were  called  into  requisition  to 
slay  their  faith,  those  teachable  sacrificers,  who 
felt  the  winds  of  earth  blow  about  their  cheeks  as 
they  do  about  mine,  and  knew  in  them  the  sym- 
bol of  a  life  of  triumph.  These  all  lived  for  me. 
No  patriarch  who  went  out  to  sacrifice  to  God 
but  he  did  it  for  me.  No  prophet  told  the  mes- 
sage of  God  but  he  told  it  for  m&  No  Psalmist 
sang  the  praise  of  God  but  the  melody  was  for 
me.  And  the  dear  Christ  poured  out  his  life  a 
holy,  perfect  sacrifice  for  me.  Verily,  it  is  as  if 
all  the  goodness  of  the  past,  like  millions  of  con- 


NOT  YOUR  OWN  315 


verging  lines,  came  to  an  electric  focus  at  the 
very  center  of  my  vast  heart-needs.  As  to  the 
sin  and  misery,  God  has  pressed  upon  us  the 
privilege  of  the  loss  of  all  that  any  day,  and  as 
for  the  inheritance  of  grace,  it  is  our  wealth  now 
for  the  asking.  Vast  vaults  filled  with  loving 
providence,  why  should  I  be  born  in  these  days  of 
their  outpoured  wealth  ? 

Then  there  is,  in  our  immediate  history,  that 
expenditure  of  care  and  prayer,  of  patience  and 
toil,  of  forgiveness  and  fidelity,  of  which  father 
and  mother  seem  inexhaustibly  possessed.  To 
come  to  the  plainest  terms,  how  often  we 
wounded  their  righteous  sensibilities,  how  often 
she  especially  went  alone  and  wept  over 
our  ingratitude.  They  reproved  us,  they  apolo- 
gized for  us.  they  practiced  the  very  insistence 
of  mercy,  and  out  of  the  fullness  of  their  sweet  af- 
fection complemented  that  which  needed  some 
kind  of  a  spiritual  microscope  to  detect  any  merit 
in  it.  And  those  school  teachers  and  tutors  ! 
How  the  heat  of  their  toil  dried  up  the  very  life- 
springs  as  they  taught  us  the  very  same  thing 
over  and  over  again.  They  fought  ignorance  on 
its  own  field,  while  no  brass  band  roused  their 
chivalry  with  music.  They  said  that  our  voices 
were  musical.  And  even  this  frail  compliment 
roused  our  conceit  until  we  were  again  worse  in- 
grates  than  before.      Then  some  new  hardship 


316  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

again  taxed  the  patient  teacher's  assistance,  and 
we  galloped  away  like  unbroken  colts  until  some- 
thing broke,  perhaps  our  temper,  and  we  ran 
away  in  a  fury.  So  costly!  They  say  to  the  mis- 
sionary, ' '  How  can  you  endure  those  coarse  and 
ignorant  peoples  and  tribes  ?  "  The  missionary 
looks  at  Jesus  and  says,  ' '  How  can  they  endure 
me  ?  "  And  so  it  is.  What  words  of  mine  yet 
stay  festering,  like  poisoned  daggers,  in  the  hearts 
of  those  whom  I  have  wounded.  What  frowns, 
what  tones  of  voice,  what  evident  ingratitude, 
what  bitter  criticism,  have  called  out  the  tolerance 
of  a  multitude  for  me  alone.     So  costly! 

Nor  dare  we  fail  to  mention  again,  though  so 
briefly,  the  redemption  which  Jesus  provides: 
Do  not  imagine  that  he  shrank  back  from  the 
effort.  Do  not  slander  Christ  as  reluctant. 
People  say  that  it  was  wonderful  for  him  to  come 
and  suffer  and  die.  Not  from  his  stand- 
point. Jesus  could  not  be  Jesus  did  he 
not  delight  in  the  sacrificial.  When  he  seemed  to 
hold  his  life  as  if  some  parcel  in  his  hands  he 
said,  "  I  lay  down  my  life  of  myself;  I  have  power 
to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. " 
Again  he  said,  ' '  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister  and  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many."  There  were  incidents 
connected  with  this  which  he  would  have  pass 
from  him,  but  never  the  sacrifice,  so  long   as  he 


NOT  YOUR  OWN  317 

bears  the  title  ''The  Lamb  of  God."  But  the 
cost  of  our  redemption — who  can  tell  it?  As  the 
Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer  has  said,  "Every  disc  of  the 
Saviour's  blood  was  so  much  coin  in  the  price 
paid."  Earth  never  can  reckon,  and  heaven's 
programme  contemplates  an  eternal  reckoning 
upon  this  theme  of  themes. 

But  more.  We  are  very  destructive  beings.  We 
have  battered  down  walls  of  defense  and  dug  out 
channels  of  destruction.  Hopes  and  joys,  faiths  and 
charities,  have  fallen  before  us.  A  man  might 
well  turn  to  Christ  and  fight  against  sin  during 
the  centuries  to  come  if  he  might  only  lessen  the 
total  amount  of  human  wrong.  Perhaps  you  re- 
pented at  the  age  of  thirty  and  have  for  some 
years  been  in  the  way  of  life ;  but,  my  friend,  there 
are  those  who  took  their  first  glass  of  intoxicants 
or  trampled  upon  virtue  first  through  your  influ- 
ence, yonder  in  asylums  or  penitentiaries.  There 
then  the  seed  you  sowed  is  bearing  its  fruit. 
They  are  in  death.  The  pity  of  it!  Christian, 
what  price  would  you  not  willingly  pay  if  you 
could  dry  up  the  poisoned  stream  of  events.  But 
there  it  keeps  flowing  on  a  constant  testimony  to 
your  destructiveness.  Ah,  if  the  accounts  were 
balanced  so  that  all  that  appears  of  a  redeeming 
nature  were  placed  to  our  credit,  and  all  that 
which  has  been  destructive  placed  upon  the  debit 
side   of   the    account,    then    we   are   bankrupts. 


318  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

For  see,  the  self-life,  the  spirit,  the  tone  of 
our  actions,  is  as  apparent  before  God  as  the 
rumbling  of  musketry  or  the  sweep  of  a  tor- 
nado. In  the  stillness  of  the  why  and  the 
how  of  life  our  God  is  looking.  And  motives 
are  very  heavy  commodities  in  the  moral  realm. 
The  man  who  meant  to  break  your  flowers  down  is 
guilty,  but  the  man  who  came  as  a  friend  to  visit 
you  and  stumbled  over  them  in  the  dark,  he  is  not 
guilty.  It  is  the  motive  that  made  it.  One  bad 
motive  outweighs  a  hundred  apparently  good 
outward  acts.  "It  is  the  bein'  of  it,"  said  Uncle 
Tom  to  Cassey  when  she  would  discourage  him  as 
he  suffered  from  the  severe  whipping  ordered  by 
Clarence,  because  he  (the  hero)  refused  to  whip 
the  other  slaves. 

Now,  what  a  wonder  of  grace,  when  the  holy  God 
takes  us,  the  non-producing,  costly,  destructive 
beings,  to  be  all  his  own,  saying :  "Ye  are  not 
your  own." 

Neither  our  things  nor  ourselves  are  ours.  One 
has  come  with  the  hand  of  mastery  to  gather  up 
the  destructive  and  put  it  to  divinest  uses.  Try- 
ing to  manage  ourselves  we  are  like  fire  let  loose. 
God  managing  us,  we  are  "cities  set  on  hills 
whose  lights  can  not  be  hid."  Come,  now,  let  us 
present  ourselves  without  a  question  or  perad- 
venture  to  our  God. 

It  is  idle  to  say,  I  did  so  years  ago.     Bo  so  now. 


NOT  YOUR  OWN  319 

There  is  more  of  you  to-day  than  ever  before. 
Make  the  dedication  without  wavering  and 
take  your  hands  off  of  the  offering.  Let  it  go  to 
whom  it  belongs.  Be  the  property  of  God  with 
the  utmost  of  your  will  and  the  completest  agree- 
ment of  your  affections.  Give  up  +o  God.  Ah, 
yes,  there  is  the  phrase  we  hear  so  often  and  find 
so  unwelcome:  "Give  up,  give  up.''  Must  I 
give  up  this  habit  and  that  enjoyment,  this  fond- 
ness and  that  amusement,  must  I  give  up?  Hear 
me  patiently.  I  know  something  of  the  meaning 
of  that  sad  cry  of  the  soul,  as  if  every  new  demand 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  were  a  bereavement.  I  have 
felt  that  that  pitiable  loss  was  just  a  step  before  me. 
I  looked  through  the  windows  from  the  distance 
and  from  the  outside  of  the  building,  and  I  saw  no 
light,  no  beauty,  within  the  temple.  Yes,  I  have 
felt  this.  They  asked  me  to  give  up,  but  could  I 
not  be  saved  without  this  extreme  rule.  There 
was  the  difficulty,  I  did  not  see  what  it  meant  to 
be  saved.  To  be  saved.  Does  that  mean  to  gain 
heaven  and  escape  ruin?  Never.  Heaven  and 
hell  are  involved  in  the  question,  but  to  be  saved 
is  to  get  the  Life,  the  Christ-life,  to  know.  Christ, 
to  love  Christ,  to  live  Christ.  And  to  be  lost  is 
to  live  for  self.  Heaven  is  thrown  in  with  the 
life,  just  as  the  color  comes  with  the  oranges  when 
you  buy  them.  You  do  not  go  to  the  store  to 
buy   the    beautiful    color;    you    buy   the    fruit, 


320  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

the  color  is  thrown  in.  So  here  you  do  not 
become  a  Christian  to  go  to  heaven.  You  be- 
come a  Christian,  a  Christ-i-an,  because 
Christ  charms  your  soul,  then  incidentally 
he  says,  "Great  is  your  reward  in  heaven." 
Heaven  is  thrown  in  with  the  salvation. 

They  tell  us  that  we  do  not  preach  hell-fire  as 
they  used  to  preach  it.  I  reckon  that  the  state- 
ment is  very  pertinent.  We  are  not  so  much 
concerned  to  keep  the  people  out  of  perdition  as 
we  are  to  get  perdition  out  of  the  people,  and  We 
are  not  so  much  concerned  to  get  people  into 
heaven  as  we  are  to  get  heaven  into  'the  people. 
This  change  of  expression  in  the  pulpits  is  but  a 
placing  of  the  emphasis  where  it  belongs,  that  is, 
upon  Christ  rather  than  upon  destiny.  Given  a 
Christly  soul,  and  destiny  is  demonstrated. 
Given  a  man  who  prays  and  sings  and  gives  and 
vows  and  preaches,  but  is  not  Christly — is  not 
Christized,  and  no  conceivable  destiny  could 
make  a  heaven  for  him.  One  may  be  con- 
ceived to  seek  heaven  as  a  miser  would  seek 
gold,  employing  the  same  avarice  and  the  same 
eagerness,  but  we  know  full  well  that  no  streets 
of  gold  and  no  gates  of  pearl  and  no  songs 
of  praise,  literal  or  figurative,  would  make  a 
heaven  to  a  soul,  without  the  eternal  wealth 
of  the  Christ-life  pouring  into  the  being.  There- 
fore, beloved,  I  would  not  have  you  give  up  with 


NOT  YOUR  OWN  321 

your  thought  mainly  upon  saving  your  soul. 
But  forfeit  self,  forfeit  all,  for  Christ ,  just  for 
Christ  himself.  Jesus  will  charm  your  soul.  In- 
quire for  his  beauty,  look  upon  him  with  the 
spirit's  eyes,  study  him,  yield  to  him-  he  will 
charm  you. 

When  will  we  learn  that  to  deny  self  is  to  in- 
dulge ourselves?  To  be  poor  in  spirit  is  to 
inherit  the  earth.  Give  up?  Yes,  give  up.  The 
old  tree  stood  straight  and  high  in  the  forest, 
the  lumberman  came  along  and  made  it  give 
up  the  great  chips  or  the  sawdust  at  the 
trunk,  until  it  fell  down  with  a  crash. 
Then  it  must  give  up  its  limbs  to  be  sawed  into 
logs.  Next  they  passed  it  through  the  saw-mill, 
until  it  gave  up  a  slab  on  this  side  and  another  on 
that,  and  still  another  and  another.  Poor 
thing,  it  is  not  half  as  large  as  it  was  when  it 
went  into  the  mill,  but  it  is  straighter  and 
smoother  and  more  useful.  And  now  they  make 
it  give  up  more  saw-dust  until  it  is  of  the  right 
size,  a  timber  to  be  planed.  They  take  it  to  the 
planing  mill.  Here  it  gives  up  more  shavings 
than  a  child  can  carry  away  in  a  basket.  And 
now  the  carver  has  it.  Chip  after  chip,  coarser 
and  finer,  are  given  up,  curves  and  circles  and 
right  lines  have  been  cut,  until  at  last  the  sand 
paper  is  applied  and  the  stick  gives  up  the  small 
dust  as  a  last  demand  of  the  skill  and  art  and  wis- 


322  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

dom  which  fitted  it  for  a  pillar  in  the  great  tem- 
ple. By  giving  up  it  gained  its  rank  and  worth. 
God  wants  to  beautify  us,  and  he  will  fulfill  it  if 
we  will  but  ' '  give  up. "  He  knows  what  we  should 
do  and  where  we  should  be,  make  up  your  mind 
to  this.  The  Lord  knows  how  to  make  the  best 
possible  out  of  you,  and  the  plan  is  revealed  in 
the  Christ-life.  Hester  Ann  Rogers  was  so  in- 
tense in  her  determination  to  perfectly  admit  the 
claim  of  the  Lord  upon  her  life  that  she  retired  to 
her  room  and  cut  her  hair  short  and  ripped  up 
some  of  her  choice  dresses,  for  she  had 
been  so  vain  about  her  hair  and  her  dresses.  And 
when  she  came  to  that  place  where  she  could  say 
Christ  is  all,  go  dearest  things,  great  or  little, 
go ,  give  me  the  Holy  Spirit,  then  the  blessed 
life  began  to  pour  into  her  soul  from  the  highest, 
and  she  knew  a  heavenly  charm.  She  meant  it 
and  she  received  it.  Not  your  own.  Not  your 
own. 

There  may  be  no  such  question  involved  in 
your  giving  up  to  Christ,  but  it  may  be  something 
more  simple  than  this,  rather  than  something 
more  abstruse.  Satan  is  an  economist.  He  will 
not  use  a  rod  when  a  green  blade  of  grass  or  a 
feather  will  answer  his  purpose. 

Blessed  condition,   not  my  own,  not  my  own 
The  claim  is  made,  the  control  is  granted. 


NOT  YOUR  OWN 


"  All,  yes  all,  I  give  to  Jesus. 
It  belongs  to  him." 

He  hath  taken  me  (not  merely  my  things),  he 
hath  taken  me,  yea  he  hath  hidden  me  in  God,  for 
does  he  not  say,  ' '  Your  lives  are  hid  with  Christ 
in  God."  A  friend  of  mine  illustrates  those 
words  by  placing  a  little  text-ticket  between  the 
leaves  of  a  small  thin  Testament  and  then  placing 
the  Testament  between  the  leaves  of  a  great 
Bible.     Then  it  is  hidden  away  in  holy  truth. 

Are  you  ready  ?  Soul  of  uncounted  worth,  are 
you  ready?  Then  do  not  simply  say  "yes,"  as 
Peter  said,  ' '  Though  all  men  forsake  thee  yet  will 
not  I,"  but  pause  and  say,  Thou  Holy  Spirit  of 
God,  who  dost  know  how  much  there  is  to  me  as 
a  redeemed  soul,  take  an  account  of  all  that  there 
is  invoWed  in  my  life,  and  now,  even  now,  give  me 
grace  to  bring  the  last  little  thing  to  thee.  This 
I  do  in  Jesus'  name.     Amen. 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY 
SPIRIT. 


*'  I  knew  Jesus,  and  he  was  very  precious  to  my  soul; 
but  I  found  something-  in  me  that  would  not  keep 
patient  and  kind.  I  did  what  I  could  to  keep  it  down, 
but  it  was  there.  I  besought  Jesus  to  do  something  for 
me,  and  when  I  gave  him  my  will  he  came  into  my 
heart  and  cast  out  all  that  would  not  be  sweet,  all  that 
would  not  be  kind,  all  that  would  not  be  patient,  and 
then  he  shut  the  door."  George  Fox. 

"  Be  not  drunken  with  wine,  wherein  is  riot,  but  he  filled 
with  the  Spirit."" — Ephesians,  v:  18. 

"The  real  battle  in  the  Christian  life  is  with  self, 
and  there  is  no  place  in  it  in  which  what  Rutherford 
calls  that  '  house-devil  of  self '  is  more  apt  to  hide  away 
than  in  the  pocket-book."  Dr.  T.  L.  Cuyler. 

"Now,  I  think  in  regard  to  our  being  filled  with  the 
Spirit,  of  course  it  is  a  gift.  The  command,  '  Be  filled,' 
implies  the  willingness  of  God  to  give  the  Spirit,  so  we 
must  begin  to  anticipate.  Why,  the  hope  of  it  will  lift 
you  up.     So  Charles  Wesley  wrote: 

'  It  lifts  me  up  to  things  above, 
It  bears  on  eagle's  wings.'  " 

Margaret  Bottome. 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

T\o  I  HEAR  some  one  say,  ''Ah!  this  is  what  I 
•*-^  want  to  hear.  Tell  us  how  to  receive  him. 
The  need,  I  admit  it,  and  ' '  I  would  rather  be  full 
of  distress  than  thus  empty."  Explain  it  as 
thoroughly  as  you  can,  giving  the  ins  and  outs 
of  this  and  that  truth  until  I  see  it  clear  as  the 
noon-day  sun.  Then  immediately  I  will  act,  and 
I  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit." 

But  there  is  the  difficulty.  We  want  some  one  to 
describe  the  way.  Dear  soul,  he  will  describe  the 
way  for  you.  Ask  him.  The  details  of  expression, 
very  dear  to  one  soul,  may  become  the  most  danger- 
ous snares  to  another  soul.  Go  to  his  own  word. 
Do  not  allow  yourself  to  even  hint  at  such  a  thing 
as  that  you,  or  any  other  human  being,  can  be 
more  concerned  about  finding  the  fullness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  than  he  is  about  our  finding  it.  Every- 
where the  admission  of  the  great  need  is  readily 
expressed,  but  so  often  the  eager  determination 
of  faith  to  receive  is  totally  wanting. 

A  very  evident  reason  for  this  is  in  the  fact 
that  away  down  in  the  depths  of  our  beings  there 


328  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

lives  a  falsehood.  We  may  be  slow  to  admit  it, 
and  if  we  were  going  to  write  out  a  general  state- 
ment of  our  convictions  and  characteristics  we 
would  not  place  the  record  concerning  this  -false- 
hood in  the  list,  but  under  the  searching  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  it  becomes  very  evident.  Indeed,  a 
little  deep,  quiet  thinking  will  manifest  it  to  most 
souls.  Even  those  common,  every-day  undertak- 
ings which  belong  to  our  lives  reveal  that  we  do 
not  deeply  believe  in  God  as  the  present,  perfect 
God.  We  do  not  believe  in  his  love,  we  do  not 
believe  that  he  cares  for  us,  we  do  not  believe 
that  he  is  really  with  us.  We  can  argue  with 
ourselves  and  say  it  is  so,  and  his  own  witness  will 
give  force  to  the  argument,  but  the  falsehood  as- 
serts itself  again.  It  will  not  down !  Do  we  not  fear 
to  trust  him,  and  do  we  not  actually  believe,  for  in- 
stance, that  toil  is  a  disaster  ?  O,  sad  infidelity. 
Is  this  the  reason  why  the  Holy  Spirit  is  called 
"the  Spirit  of  Truth,"  the  opposite  to  the  false- 
hood? When  he  is  cherished  in  all  the  deeps  of  the 
being  the  falsehood  dies  out.  Fear  and  doubt  and 
complaining  take  their  flight ,  and  the  new  truth 
is  cherished  in  their  stead. 

Now,  the  conflict  is  with  that  old  falsehood.  In 
so  far  as  we  cherish  the  spirit  of  complete  sub- 
mission to  the  Holy  Ghost  we  gain  victory  over 
the  falsehood,  but  we  are  to  come  to  that  condi- 
tion where  we  so  abandon  ourselves  to  him  that 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  329 

the  falsehood  is  turned  out  of  the  being,  and  the 
very  truth  of  God  is  firmly  settled  in  the  cleansed 
heart.  It  is  astonishing  what  new  light  this  will 
throw  upon  life's  trials.  The  idea  of  a  man  say- 
ing that  he  glories  in  tribulation!  How  could  it 
be?  Ah,  that  can  never  be  seen  until  the  false- 
hood of  fear  is  gone  out  and  in  its  place  lives  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  working  Patience  and  Experience 
and  Hope  through  the  tribulation. 

Resolution  will  not  do  this.  Many  people  ad- 
mire a  holy  life,  but  never  will  admiration  bring 
it.  Admiration  is  not  resolution.  Resolution  is 
not  faith,  and  faith  is  not  the  Holy  Spirit.  Ad- 
miration may  lead  to  resolution,  resolution  to 
faith,  and  faith  in  turn  lay  claim  to  Him  But 
right  there  lays  the  stepping  stone  to  our  victory. 
We  are  to  receive  Him. 

An  easy  way  of  consecration  is  a  false  way. 
If  it  be  simple  to-day  it  will  be  more  abstruse  to- 
morrow. Some,  who  find  the  more  difficult  ele- 
ments of  consecration  when  they  for  the  first 
time  seek  Jesus,  seem  to  enter  into  the  blessed 
and  full  reception  of  the  Holy  Spirit  then  and 
there.  But  no  responsible  man  or  woman  can  re- 
alize that  deep  and  thorough  dedication  who  has 
not  been  willing  to  let  the  divine  One  search  the 
soul  to  its  depths.  Do  not  say  "  I  am  consecrated 
fully  to  God.  Such  moments  of  ecstacy  as  I  have 
could  not  come  to  me  otherwise. ' '     Let  the  Holy 


330  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

Spirit  search  you.  Die,  die  to  self.  Count  no 
costs.  Seek  no  personal  advantages  Let  the 
Cain-life  die.  The  quest  for  the  riches  of  God 
monopolizes  all  other  quests.  Rich  or  poor, 
young  or  old,  loved  or  hated,  let  us  die. 

Is  your  temper  the  stumbling-block  ?  Murder, 
we  seek  to  put  away  from  us  as  far  as  possible. 
If  any  one  should  say  that  a  murder  had  been 
committed  in  the  next  street  from  our  home,  and 
we  should  learn  in  an  hour  that  it  was  done  in 
the  avenue  by  the  same  name  twenty  blocks  away, 
we  should  say,  ' '  I  am  glad  it  was  not  right  in  our 
neighborhood."  This  viciousness  of  temper  be- 
longs to  the  murder-spirit;  it  is  a  remainder  of 
the  Cain-life.  The  Holy  Spirit  will  give  us  not 
only  to  have  it  subdued,  but  to  have  it  rooted  out 
and  cast  far,  far  away  from  us,  the  farther  the 
better.  Not  the  temper,  but  the  viciousness. 
For  the  temper  is  to  the  life  what  the  tension  is 
to  the  bow  or  what  the  tone  is  to  the  harp.  When 
the  tension  is  correct  the  bend  of  the  bow  is 
pleasing,  and  when  the  tone  is  correct  the  harp 
will  respond  to  its  master,  but  let  the  bow  be  so 
limp  that  it  will  not  spring,  or  so  stiff  that  it 
will  break,  and  it  is  a  failure;  likewise  a  harp 
without  tone  would  respond  melodiously  to  the 
touch  of  no  master.  Do  not  pray  to  have  the 
temper  broken.  Give  it  over  to  the  unfailing 
Temper-Keeper,  whose  name  is  Love. 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  331 

Beware  that  your  heart  is  not  set  upon  circum- 
stances instead  of  Christ.  One  given  to  com- 
plaining may  become  cheerful  and  affable  and  re- 
main so  for  months  because  some  one  has  prom- 
ised him  a  trip  over  the  mountains.  This  prom- 
ise throws  music  into  that  life  in  less  than  an 
hour.  But  has  his  motive  necessarily  been 
changed?  And  will  this  kind  of  cheer  and  affa- 
bility abide  the  stress  of  the  years?  Is  it  not  the 
joy  of  self -delight  instead  of  the  joy  of  the  Lord? 

Thank  God,  His  joy  is  very  apparent  in  the  many 
young  and  old  people  who  have  left  the  outing 
and  the  comfortable  home  for  sacrificial  service 
in  mission  fields  of  the  great  cities  near  and 
distant,  and  whose  pure,  rich  joy  delights 
in  weariness  and  in  enduring  the  cross  for 
others. 

What  does  it  matter  to  one  entirely  given  over 
to  Christ  and  living  in  true  fellowship  with  him, 
ready  to  perfect  obedience,  whether  he  appears 
to  be  in  prosperity  or  not?  Suppose  he  to-day 
should  receive  ten  thousand  dollars  as  a  gift.  He 
knows  that  he  is  no  richer  than  before.  He 
knows  that  in  less  than  an  hour  he  may  be  re- 
quired to  give  it  all  over  for  the  building  of  an 
orphanage  or  for  the  carrying  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  neediest  or  for  some  similar  service.  Money 
or  lands  could  not  make  him  richer.  There  is  one 
kind  of  riches  to  him,   that  which  endures   and 


332  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

glorilBes,  even  "the  riches  of  grace  in  Jesus 
Christ."  The  possessions  are  only  the  peelings 
around  the  new  opportunity,  and  it  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  Lord  to  strip  off  the  wrappings  so 
as  to  get  at  the  opportunity  for  us,  or  it  may  be 
that  we  can  use  it  like  apples,  peelings  and  all. 
It  matters  not  which  way  to  such  a  one,  for 
he  knows  that  neither  his  joy  nor  his  sorrow 
comes  from  these  things.  He  worships  the  dear 
will  of  his  G-od.  "I  get  what  I  want,"  said  a 
Christian  lady,  "because  I  want  my  Master's 
will." 

Can  you  this  day  step  out  beyond  the  last  old 
entanglement  and  say:  "Lord,  give  me  thy  will." 
Can  you?  Then,  hear  him  say  to  you,  "  Be  filled 
with  the  Spirit."  Are  you  sometimes  compli- 
menting yourself  upon  your  respectability  or 
achievements  or  possessions  or  health?  Abandon 
them  all  to  the  blessed  Lord  and  do  not  wait  to 
cast  a  lingering  look  upon  your  idols.  Said  Miss 
Havergal :  "I  think  this  very  sense  of  not 
having  gifts  is  the  best  and  most  useful  gift 
of  them  all."  And  Paul:  "As  having  nothing 
and  yet  possessing  all  things."  Our  very  out- 
fit gets  into  our  way.  ' '  Let  us  lay  aside  every 
weight." 

Pleasing  our  Father  becomes  the  rapture  of  the 
fully  consecrated  soul.  Having  the  disapproval  of 
others  when  he  knows  he  pleases  God  is  no  more 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  333 

to  him  than  if  a  man  seeking  for  ivory  in  Africa 
should  bring  home  a  ship-load  of  the  treasures 
and  lose  a  coat-button  in  the  attempt.  Come, 
then,  to  the  great  moment  which  eternity  will 
celebrate,  and  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  his  fullness 

Come  as  Abraham  did.  He  had  become  the 
man  of  faith.  He  had  believed  God  when  all  na- 
ture seemed  opposed  to  it.  The  great  promise 
had  been  given,  but  a  new  test  must  be  applied. 
He  must  take  his  only  son  Isaac  and  go  at  the 
Lord's  command  up  into  the  mountain  and  obey 
the  orders  given.  See  him!  O,  the  struggle. 
His  son  follows  hesitatingly  with  him,  saying: 
"Where  is  the  lamb?"  He  answers:  "My  son, 
God  will  provide  himself  a  lamb  for  the  offering." 
Go  on,  Abraham,  go  to  the  end  of  self.  How  his 
hand  must  have  trembled  as  he  built  that  altar, 
but  how  much  more  as  he  binds  his  son  and  places 
him  on  it.  Will  he  kill  him,  will  he  kill  his  own 
boy?  And  will  the  Lord  allow  him  to  do  it?  In 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  read :  ' '  He  ac- 
counted that  God  was  able  to  raise  him  from  the 
dead,  which  also  he  did,  in  a  figure."  The  knife 
is  raised  above  the  child.  Poor  child.  Poor 
father.  Nay,  they  are  both  receiving  new  riches. 
Abraham  has  gone  to  the  end  of  self.  He  has 
thrust  the  knife,  not  into  Isaac,  but  into  his  own 


334  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

father-heart.     It  is  enough.     God   provides  the 
lamb  and  Abraham  goes  away  glorified. 

Have  you  gone  to  the  end  of  natural  affection  ? 
Have  you  given  over  your  fondnesses  and 
your  affinities  to  Christ  ?  Your  filial  heart,  your 
mother  heart,  your  father  heart  and  your  lover's 
heart,  have  you  given  this  over  to  the  King  ? 
Jesus  meant  just  what  he  uttered  when  he  said, 
' '  If  any  man  cometh  unto  me  and  hateth  not  his 
father  and  mother  and  wife  and  children  and 
brethren  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also, 
he  can  not  be  my  disciple."  Notice  that  he  says 
that  we  are  to  hate  our  own  lives.  We  are  not  to 
hate  them  more  than  we  hate  others  or  others 
more  than  them.  It  is  the  self -life  wherever  we 
find  it.  Deadly  opposition  to  this  everywhere 
will  prepare  us  for  the  immediate  receiving  of  the 
Christ-life  with  which  we  are  called  to  lovingly 
drive  the  self-life  out  of  our  fellows.  We  see  now 
the  possible  righteousness  in  that  strange  saying 
reported  of  Mrs.  Spurgeon,  the  mother  of  the 
great  Charles,  ' '  I  seek  to  bring  you  up  to  live  a 
life  all  for  the  glory  of  God.  If  you  grow  up  and 
dare  to  run  into  sin  and  die  unsaved  I  will  go  to 
the  judgment  and  witness  against  you." 

Then  we  may  lose  the  power  of  appreciation  of 
our  friends  ?  Never.  We  shall  love  them  as  we 
never  did  before.  We  shall  sacrifice  our  own 
tastes  and  comforts  for  them  with  a  delightful 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  335 

eagerness,  and  we  shall  cherish  them  with  that  re- 
gard which  shall  live  right  on  in  heaven,  sweetly 
in  harmony  with  the  love  of  our  King.  Let  such 
love  as  this  rule  in  our  souls,  and  how  obediently 
the  appetites  and  passions  will  own  its  sway.  Oh, 
the  Christ-love!  How  it  sweetens  and  elevates 
and  glorifies  the  family  life.  The  higher  life  is 
one  of  higher  affection.  The  Calvary  spirit  at  the 
dinner  table  will  make  the  children  extra  well  be- 
haved, 

A  young  lady  asked  me  one  day  why  she  could 
not  enjoy  a  victorious  life  in  Christ.  She  gave 
evidence  of  many  good  qualities  of  character  but 
of  one  great  defect.  I  noticed  it,  and  said,  ' '  Sister, 
were  you  ever  conquered?"  ' '  What  do  you  mean?" 
said  she.  ' '  I  mean  did  your  mother  or  father  or 
anyone  else  ever  conquer  you,  until  you  gave  up 
to  be  ruled?"  Then  she  replied,  "  I  think  such  a 
thing  never  really  occurred  in  my  life,"  There 
was  her  difficulty.  She  had  never  positively  hated 
rebellion.  The  soul  is  deep ;  great  soundings  must 
be  taken  and  great  depths  broken  up.  Do  you 
fear  it?     Fear  what?  The  truth  ? 

Love  it  if  hell  seems  to  skirt  it,  love  it,  love 
it.  The  gentle  God  help  you.  Beware  of  plan- 
ishing. In  straightening  out  plates  of  iron  which 
have  become  bent  at  the  corners,  the  workmen 
do  this.     They  begin  to  pound  the  iron  at  a  dis- 


336  OUT  OF  THE  CATN-LIFE 

tance  from  the  edges  and  then  gradually  come 
out  to  the  edges,  thus  effecting  a  smooth  surface. 
But  there  is  no  room  for  planishing  here.  This 
is  breaking  off,  this  is  giving  up.  Drop  the  self- 
life  like  a  hot  iron.  It  burns  with  awful  fires. 
Full-shining  of  the  love  of  God,  smite  our  self-life 
dead! 

Look  at  Elisha.  Word  is  come  that  his  master 
Elijah  is  to  be  taken  away  from  him.  He  and  Eli- 
jah are  on  their  way  to  the  other  side  of  Jordan, 
where  the  great  scene  of  Elijah's  translation  is  to 
occur.  The  young  men  from  the  school  of  the 
prophets  wait  yonder  on  the  hillside,  jeering  at 
Elisha.  "Knowest  thou  not  that  thy  master  will 
be  taken  away  from  thee  to-day?"  He  answers, 
♦'Yes,  I  know  it,  hold  your  peace."  The  journey 
is  completed  and  Elisha  makes  his  request  that  a 
double  portion  of  Elijah's  spirit  may  rest  upon 
him.  The  assurance  that  his  request  will  be 
answered,  if  the  condition  is  fulfilled,  is  given  to  Eli- 
sha. The  condition  is  fulfilled.  Elisha  has  watched 
him  ascending,  the  mantel  has  fallen,  and  Elisha 
has  made  his  way  back  to  Jordan.  Elijah  with 
that  mantel  divided  the  waters  of  the  Jordan  when 
they  passed  over  together.  Can  Elisha  divide 
them  now?  The  test  is  ready.  The  boys 
from  the  school  of  the  prophet  watch  to  see 
what  he  will  do.     I  think  I  see  him  step  forth 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  337 

until  his  feet  are  close  to  the  waters  of  the 
flowing  river.  I  think  I  hear  him  say  to  him- 
self, ' '  These  waters  will  not  divide ;  it  is 
against  nature  to  try  to  make  them  divide; 
see  how  sullen  they  look,  and  what  is  this  mantel, 
and  if  I  should  try  to  divide  them  and  fail,  all 
the  days  of  my  life  I  shall  be  taunted  by  those 
boys  yonder  or  those  whom  they  tell  of  my 
failure.  I  will  have  an  undying  reputation  as  a 
fool.  No,  I  can  not  do  it."  He  waits  and  won- 
ders, half  believing.  Behold  the  soul's  battle- 
field. Who  will  win?  God  or  the  enemy? 
Eflisha  waits.  And  now  I  hear  him  say  to  him- 
self. ' '  Then  let  me  fail,  let  me  be  a  fool,  let  those 
students  laugh  at  me  as  long  as  I  live,  or  let  me 
die  and  let  my  body  fall  into  this  muddy  stream." 
But  his  vision  is  rising.  The  river  is  almost  for- 
gotten, so  is  the  mantel,  so  are  the  boys,  they  are 
all  hidden  in  the  great  consecration.  He  has 
lifted  his  eyes  unto  Grod,  unto  God  alone.  He 
cries,  "Where  is  the  God  of  Elijah?"  and  throws 
the  mantel  down  upon  the  waters,  dividing  them 
right  and  left,  while  the  boys  from  the  school  of 
the  prophets  shout  down  through  the  valley,  "The 
spirit  of  Elijah  doth  rest  upon  Elisha."  See, 
when  Elisha  got  to  the  end  of  the  students  and 
the  mantel  and  the  water  and  Elisha,  and  saw 
God  only,  his  victory  came.  Oh,  soul,  make  way, 
make  way  for  the  divine,  let  it  rush  in.     It  alone 


338  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

shall  endure  throughout  all  generations.     Death 
of  the  self -life.     This  be  thy  watchword.  * 

Let  us  go  to  that  memorable  night  when  there 
wrestled  with  Jacob  an  angel  until  the  break  of 
day.  Jacob  was  a  follower  of  God,  he  was  not  a 
heathen,  but  he  was  contentious  and  sly,  he  was 
strife-ridden  and  given  to  supplant  other  people. 
The  angel  wrestles  with  him.  The  angel  here  men- 
tioned has  by  many  been  thought  to  be  Jesus 
before  his  incarnation.  Jacob  wrestled  too. 
Jacob  believes  in  Jacob.  He  would  indorse  the 
theory  we  so  often  hear,  ' '  Do  the  best  I  can  and 
let  the  Lord  do  the  rest."  Anon  the  angel  touches 
Jacob  on  the  thigh  and  puts  it  out  of  joint.  Jacob's 
power  to  brace  himself  and  strive  in  the  struggle  is 
gone.  What  can  he  do  but  hold  on  to  the  angel. 
Then  the  angel  cries,  '<Let  me  go,  for  the  day 
breaketh;'andJacob,no  longer  capable  of  wrestling, 

*Note  the  steps  up  which  the  Lord  led  Moses. 

Ex.  3:4.     (The  Lord)   "  Moses,  Moses." 

Ex.  3:4.     (Moses)     ''Here  am  1." 

Ex.  3 :  10.    (The  Lord)     '•  I  will  send  thee." 

Ex.  3:11.    (Moses)     "Who  am  I?" 

Ex.  3 :  14.    (The  Lord)     "Thus  shall  ye  say,  I  am  hath  sent  me." 

Ex.  4:1.     (Moses)     "They  will  not  believe  me." 

Ex.  4:8.     (The  Lord)     "They  will  believe." 

Ex.  4 :  10.     (Moses)     "  O  Lord,  I  am  not  eloquent." 

Ex.  4:12.     fThe  Lord)     "I  will  be  with  thy  mouth." 

Ex.  4:13.     (Moses)     "Send,    I   pray  thee,   by  the  hand  of  whom 

thou  wilt." 
Ex.  4:14.     (The  Lord)     "Is  there  not  Aaron  ?  " 
Ex.  4:30.     (Moses)     "And  Aaron  spake  the  words." 
Ex.  6:29.     (The  Lord]     "Speak  thou  unto  Pharaoh." 
Ex.  6:30.     (Moses)     "Behold  I  am  of  uncircumcised  lips." 
Ex.  7 :  I.     (The  Lord)  "  See  I  have  made  thee  a  god  unto  Phaiaoh." 

(Moses)     "Works  miracles." 
Ex.  13 :  21.     "  And  the  Lord  went  before  them  by  day  in  a  pillar  of 
cloud,  to  lead  them  the  way;  and  by  night  in  a  pillar  of  fire,  to  give 
them  light;  that  they  might  go  by  day  and  by  night." 


RECEIVING  THE  BOLT  SPIRIT  339 

holds  with  his  plea  for  a  blessing  until  it  is  said, 
*'  Thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  Jacob  (meaning  a 
supplanter),  but  thou  shalt  be  called  Israel,  for  as  a 
prince  hast  thou  had  power  with  God  and  pre- 
vailed." His  victory  came  when  incapable  of 
wrestling,  he  could  only  hold  on  and  act. 

Come,  let  us  be  princes.  Not  doing  the  best 
we  can  and  then  asking  God  to  supplement  it, 
but  let  us  die  unto  all  effort,  and  then  the  strength 
of  God  shall  work  through  us,  our  own  victories, 
and  the  victories  of  the  kingdom. 

When  Paul  had  received  those  great  revelations 
in  the  upper  heavens  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
be  preserved  from  any  assertion  of  self.  He  says, 
' '  Lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure  there 
was  given  to  me  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,"  and  after 
beseeching  the  Lord  three  times  for  its  removal, 
you  remember  the  answer,  ' '  My  grace  is  suffic- 
ient for  thee,  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in 
weakness."  Testifying  to  our  own  leanness  does 
not  imply  humility.  It  may  rather  imply  sloth 
and  the  taking  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  vain. 
We  may  confess  our  sinfulness  and  honor  our 
Saviour  best  by  witnessing  to  the  victory  we  act- 
ually prove  hour  by  hour.  Personal  pessimism 
is  wicked  doubt.  Yet  we  are  weakness.  Let  us 
admit  it,  let  us  believe  it,  and,  in  fullest  conscious- 
ness of  whatever  it  may  imply,  let  us  receive  God 
and  his  strength.     Paul  did  not  hesitate  to  admit 


340  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

that  he  was  nothing.  Men  will  tell  you  that  you 
will  become  limp  and  aimless  and  ambitionless  if 
you  undertake  so  to  abandon  yourself  to  God ;  but 
is  Divine  love  limp,  is  Calvary  aimless,  is  the 
Christ-life  without  energy,  is  God  dead? 

The  legend  says  that  when  Mahmud  captured  the 
Hindu  temple  of  Somnath  he  found  there  a  great 
idol.  Approaching  it  he  smote  the  hollow  thing 
with  his  battle  axe,  when,  forthwith  it  split  and 
showered  forth  a  profusion  of  costly  jewels  and 
gold.  By  destroying  the  idol,  Mahmud  secured 
the  treasure^  And  by  abandoning  our  wishes  and 
preferences,  yea,  ourselves,  unto  God,  we  find  the 
wealth  of  the  energy  of  the  life  of  the  Holy  One. 
Smite  the  idol,  the  dearest  idol,  and  be  filled  with 
the  Spirit  to-day. 

To  the  Ephesians  Paul  says,  '  <  Be  not  drunk 
with  wine  wherein  is  excess,  but  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit"  (Eph.  v:  18),  and  on  the  very  same  page 
of  his  Epistle  he  tells  husbands  to  love  their 
wives,  and  wives  to  be  true  to  their  husbands,  and 
children  to  obey  their  parents;  hence  it  is  just  as 
important  and  just  as  binding  upon  us  to  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit  as  it  is  for  us  to  be  tri^e  in 
our  family  relationships.  The  figure  Paul  uses 
here  is  a  very  expressive  one.  We  will  not  get 
the  best  results  by  having  in  our  minds  the 
picture  of  a  receptacle  being  filled  with  some  kind 
of  commodity,  as  for  instance,   a  pail  being  filled 


hecetvinq  the  holy  spirit         34^ 

with  water  or  a  basket  with  fruit.  We  must  go 
beyond  this.  Luke  says,  "All  in  the  synagogue 
werejilled  with  wrath."  (Luke  iv:  28.)  Also, 
"Behold  a  man  full  of  leprosy."  (Luke  v:  12.) 
Now,  a  man  full  of  wrath  has  every  secret  spring 
of  his  soul's  action  touched  and  moved  by  wrath, 
and  a  man  full  of  leprosy  is  permeated  with  the 
disease.  So  here,  a  man  full  of  the  Spirit  has  every 
secret  spring  of  his  soul's  action  touched  and  moved 
by  the  Spirit  and  he  is  permeated  with  the  Spirit. 
It  is  life  to  life  and  Spirit  to  spirit. 

While  the  tense  of  the  verb  used  in  this  text 
would  make  the  verb  read  "Be  ye  filling  with 
the  Spirit,"  tnat  in  Acts  ii:4  literally  reads 
"They  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and 
that  in  Acts  xi:  24  literally  reads  "He  jwas 
*  *  *  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  So  we  have 
three  tenses  of  the  verb,  giving  us  a  fullness, 
realized  definitely  as  an  incident  in  the  past,  a 
present  fullness,  and  a  continuous  filling — filled, 
full,  and  filling.  A  moment's  reflection  will  sug- 
gest space  for  growth  and  for  the  impartation  of 
help  for  others  through  us,  for  which  the  Holy 
One  provides,  through  this  three-fold  expression 
of  the  word  "fill."  Start  anywhere  on  this 
thought  and  run  out  upon  any  one  of  its  direct 
lines  and  you  find  it  literally  paved  with  oppor- 
tunity. Again,  being  filled  with  the  Spirit  is  ex- 
pressively placed  over  against  being  drunk  with 


342  OUT  OF  THE  CAIN-LIFE 

wine.  A  man  who  is  drunk  does  not  live  his  own 
life;  his  thoughts  are  wine  thoughts,  his  gait  is  a 
wine  gait,  his  words  are  wine  words,  so  the  man 
who  is  filled  with  the  Spirit  does  not  live  his  own 
life,  his  thoughts  are  to  be  brought  into  captivity 
to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  his  words  are  pure 
words,  he  lives  in  the  Spirit,  and  he  walks  in 
the  Spirit.  This  is  the  way  out  of  the  Cain-life; 
we  die  with  Christ  that  we  may  live  with  him. 
What  a  beautiful  life  must  follow 

Limitless  territory  awaits  us.  The  Infinite  One 
hath  placed  himself  at  our  disposal,  he  hath  filled 
us  with  himself,  we  have  received  the  promise  of 
the  Father,  by  faith  the  gift  is  ours. 

Now  is  the  work  done,  is  this  all  ?  No,  we  are 
to  share  the  glory  of  the  King  in  his  beauty  and 
our  bodies  are  to  be  made  like  unto  his  own,  we 
are  to  come  where  we  have  perfect  liberty.  Cit- 
izens of  heaven!  Tearless,  stainless,  sinless 
heaven!  There  no  tempter  could  ever  suggest 
the  wish  for  sinning.  And  here  and  now,  while 
we  breathe  through  this  weak  clay  in  which 
we  live,  all  the  universe  is  filled  with  oppor- 
tunity and  advantage  for  us  in  Christ.  The 
full  heart  should  become  larger  and  the  large 
heart  should  grow  during  the  centuries  to  receive 
more  and  more  of  the  teaching,  the  leading  and 
the  power,  to  the  glory  of  the  Father  and  of  the 
Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


RECEIVING  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  343 

And  thus  finding  Christ  we  shall  find  human- 
ity— and  ourselves.  The  life  that  saves  shall 
usurp  the  life  that  slays,  and  we  shall  be 
/'All  like-minded,  compassionate,  loving  as 
brethren,  tender-hearted,  humble-minded;  not 
rendering  evil  for  evil,  or  reviling  for  revil- 
ing; but  contrariwise,  blessing."  (I  Peter  iii: 
8,  9.)  ''I  venerate  Christ  in  the  slave  who 
cleans  my  sandals,"  said  the  benevolent  Paulinus. 

We  have  left  Cain  in  the  distance.  Look  not 
back  upon  him.  Manhood  is  to  be  found  in  the 
very  opposite  direction,  where  stands  the  Christ, 
''the  Way,  the  Truth  and  THE  LIFE." 


